The Testing Of Your Faith

On May 29, 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary planted the British flag on the top of Mount Everest. He and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay were the first to conquer that mountain, and in doing so, they had climbed to the very top of the world because there is no mountain higher than Everest. Higher in elevation above sea level that is. To make it to the top of the world, Hillary, Norgay and the many others who followed since then, had to face discouragement, great danger, disasters, and death. More than 340 people have died in the attempt to climb that mountain, and 200 of those are still up there. Most of the time, if you die on Everest you stay on Everest because it’s just too dangerous for anyone to bring you down.

Hillary, Norgay, and the many that followed them have climbed higher than anyone else in the world, but what I see in our text today are two other men, two mountaineers named Abraham and Isaac, who will climb higher spiritually than any other man had climbed up to this point, or maybe ever will climb upon this earth, other than the Son of God Himself, as they climb to this spiritual pinnacle that is described here in Genesis 22.

Abraham climbed the highest mountain of submission, and Isaac climbed the highest mountain of sacrifice. You see, Abraham was a man of faith and recognized as a friend of God. God had promised him a son, and it would be through this son that he would become Gen 17:4 …the father of a multitude of nations. And now, in our text today, God has come to Abraham and said, Gen 22:2 …"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

Take this only son of yours, this son of the promise, and sacrifice him—put him to death. Now, can you imagine the thoughts that might have been going through Abraham’s head? We have to use our imagination because the scriptures don’t give us many clues here. So, we put ourselves into his place and think, “Lord, huh? What are you thinking? This is the son you promised me. He is the one you said would make me the father of many nations. If I kill him, then that’s the end of the promise.”

But Abraham by this time in his life has learned obedience when it comes to the commands of God. He has learned to say “yes” when God speaks. Just like he said in the first verse after the Lord called out to him, Gen 22:1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

Here I am! You know that’s something all of us need to learn, isn’t it? When the Lord calls, we immediately say, “Here I am.” That’s the language of obedience, “Here I am.” We see that obedience in the servants of God throughout the Bible. For example, years later in Exodus, God will appear to Moses in a burning bush. Exo 3:4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then in the middle of the night 1Sa 3:4 …LORD called Samuel; and he said, "Here I am." In our chapter today, Genesis 22, Abraham said the same thing, at three different times, “Here I am.”

The language of obedience given before even knowing what the Lord is going to say or ask of them. That’s obedience, but it’s also trust. Trusting the One who is trustworthy!

So, God has asked Abraham to go to a very specific place and offer up his only son in sacrifice. What kind of God would ask such a thing? Now, we know that this is a test for Abraham, but Abraham didn’t know that at the time. He was old and pretty mature in his faith. He might have thought that the days of God testing him were over; that he could kick back and coast. But it would appear that God keeps those refining fires going throughout the lives of His people. Being mortal and messing up as often as we do, God stays busy with the task of growing us and maturing us. He doesn’t let up in this.

Look at Abraham. He’s known as a man of faith, but his faith is far from perfect. Twice we see him leaving the land God brought him to because of famine and deceiving people concerning his wife because he’s afraid they’ll kill him and take her. He surely wasn’t walking in faith at those times. He left the land, and he lied to those people. So, God tested Abraham to see where he was at spiritually. And you know, it’s important to know the difference between when it’s God, Satan, this world, or just our own flesh that’s tempting us because it’s not often that God tests a person and they know they’re being tested. He doesn’t come to us and say, “Hey Terry. I’m going to test you now.”