Introduction
Review the theme of Abraham as the "father of faith." We come now to the summit of Abraham's faith in God (which was ironically expressed on the summit of a mountain). This event is one of the most dramatic and disturbing passages in the whole Bible. And, as we will see, it also illustrates principles that apply to all who seek to live by faith in the God of the Bible . . .
God will test your faith in Him
All of the promises that God made to Abraham (review 12:1-3) depended upon Abraham and Sarah having a son – even though Sarah was barren and they were both old. After 25 years (and a major faith-lapse over this), God gave them Isaac. Isaac means "laughter" because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when God insisted that they would have a child at 100 and 90 years old. He became the joy of their lives – the child of their old age, the evidence of God's faithfulness, and the embodiment of God's promises. By the time we get to Gen. 22, Isaac is a young man.
Read 22:1,2. Now God says, "I want you to take your son and kill him and offer him up to Me as a burnt offering." This strikes us as outrageous and cruel. What the New Testament views as instructive and inspiring, we view as embarrassing. We avoid it (with ourselves and/or non-Christians), or over-qualify it by pointing out that God later prohibited child-sacrifice (Lev. 18:21; Jer. 19:5), or that Abraham had God's promise to preserve his son at least until he bore children, or that God was enacting a prophetic drama. All of these points have validity, and we'll look at some of them soon – but we shouldn't use them to obscure the main point of the text . . .
Why did God command this? The text says it was to "test" Abraham (22:1) – to call on him to demonstrate his trust in and commitment to Him. A "test" is a calibrated strain on one's faith in God, a circumstance that appears to contradict what we know about God, what God promises, etc. It may be actively enacted by God (as here), or it may be passively allowed by God (as with Job) – but God orchestrates it for His own purposes – to exhibit and mature/purify your faith. This may sound like your worst nightmare, but this is what it says – and we need to understand this truth to get beyond a primitive level in our dealings with God: If you follow Him, He will test your faith in Him.
This is what God said He did with the Israelites in the Wilderness (read Deut. 8:2). This is what God says He does with all Christians (read 1 Pet. 4:12).
What right has God to do this? Because He is God! He is Ruler, Lord, and King. He reserves the right to be the exclusive object of our devotion because He made us for Himself. He wants us to trust and respect Him more than all other objects of trust and affection. This is what it means to "fear" God (Deut. 10:12; see also 22:12).
In this sense, the spirituality of the Bible is very different from most contemporary western spirituality. Our culture wants spirituality, but we instrumental spirituality – spirituality as a means to our ends. Just as we domesticate a horse so that he uses his power to pull our wagon, so we want a domesticated God who will fulfill our agendas. We want Him to be like a transactional counselor, who begins the session by asking us what we want to accomplish, how He can help us deal with the problems we define so we can get on with pursuing our goals for our lives.
If this is the god you want, you will inevitably be disappointed with (or offended by) the God of the Bible! Because He will never cooperate with your domestication project. He interrupts your life without asking permission, and He never apologizes for His interruptions. He reserves the right call on you to follow His plans, even if that means scrapping your plans and parting with what is dearest to you (RELATIONSHIPS; PLANS; POSSESSIONS; TALENTS; etc.). This is why C. S. Lewis portrayed Him as a lion in The Narnian Chronicles. After meeting Aslan, one of the children tells her brother about him. "Is he safe?" he asks. "Oh no," she answers, "He is not safe – but He is good."
This is the God whom Abraham had followed for over 40 years. And Abraham knew God well enough to recognize His voice when He said 22:2. As we read Abraham's response, we get insight into what it looks like to trust God when He tests us.
Read 22:3. At first glance, it sounds like Abraham got up early with a smile on his face, said "It's a beautiful day – I can't wait to get going!" and whistled as he made the preparations. But Abraham probably rose early because he couldn't sleep all night because of his anxiety over what God had asked him to do.
LESSON: It is not true that following God is always easy, something you do cheerfully. It is sometimes very painful (Heb. 12:11a). Nor is it true that the longer you follow God, the easier it gets. Really, it's just the opposite if we consult Scripture and people who have walked with Him for a long time. He often calls on advanced believers for more difficult steps.
Read 22:4. This also seems sadistic. God could have told him to take Isaac out to the back yard immediately, but He told him to take a long (50 mile), three-day trip to the site. This wasn't sadistic – there was a good reason for this, as we'll see. But imagine how agonizing this must have been. Imagine Abraham's response as the two servants and Isaac chit-chatted along the way.
Read 22:5-8. Why did Abraham have Isaac carry the wood for his burning up the mountain? It may be because Abraham was too weak and Isaac was a strong young adult. The text doesn't say, but I believe that God told Abraham to do this – again, for reasons that we'll discover shortly.
Note 22:8 – ". . . God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering . . ." Abraham wasn't lying; he was expressing his trust in God – but he was also being deliberately ambiguous because he didn't want to freak Isaac out.
Read 22:9. The text is mercifully concise. Imagine the look of shock and horror on Isaac's face when he learned of his father's intentions. Imagine Abraham's agony as he told him what God commanded him to do. If Isaac was strong enough to carry up the wood, he was strong enough to resist and run away, so he must have decided to submit to being bound! Evidently, Isaac chose to accept Abraham's explanation and share his faith. They decided together to go through with it, said their good-byes, etc.
Read 22:10. Abraham went all the way! He raised the knife and was ready to plunge it into his son's heart, and then light the fire and burn his son up. James says that this act completed his faith in God (Jas. 2:22).
SUMMARIZE: The God who really exists will test your faith. He will call on you to demonstrate your commitment to Him by entrusting to Him what you love most. But you will never be able to do this unless you understand something else about God . . .
God tests in order to bless – not to harm
Read 22:11. At the last possible second, after Abraham had shown his willingness to go all the way, God intervened through His angel. You can imagine how quickly Abraham answered, and how readily he obeyed! Read 22:12 – Abraham had passed the test.[1] Read 22:13. God provided a substitute offering for Isaac, and He gave his son back to him. Now the very son who had been such a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness, who also had been such an agonizing reminder of God's "jealousy," was again (in a much deeper way) a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness. Read 22:16,17a – this test will lead to greater blessing for Abraham.
This brings us to the second lesson of this story, which is every bit as important as the first lesson. God will test you in order to bless you, and never to do you ultimate harm. This is because God is good and loving. As Oswald Sanders says (concerning Isa. 64:8), "His sovereignty is tempered by His love." He is a Ruler far more powerful and authoritative than we can imagine – but He is also far more good and loving than we can imagine. This means that:
He will never allow us to be tested beyond our faith-capacity (read 1 Cor. 10:13). Abraham's mature faith was tested to its limit – but not beyond.
His tests will never ultimately contradict His promises. Abraham knew this about God, and this is why he was willing to obey Him even to the point of offering up his son. Because God has promised to bless the world through Isaac's offspring, he concluded that God would raise Abraham from the dead (read Heb. 11:17-19). This is why he said ". . . we will return . . ." (22:5).
His tests are always intended for a good result in our lives. Abraham knew God wasn't capricious or abusive, but rather good and faithful. And he knew that God had always tested him for his good in the past. We can have the same confidence when God tests us (read Heb. 12:10). This doesn't take away the pain, but it undergirds us with hope.
Sometimes, He gives you back what you offered to Him, but so that you can never look at it the same way again – not as your possession to clutch on to, but as God's gift to glorify Him with (HEALTH; ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP; PLANS/DREAMS FOR YOUR LIFE/CHILDREN; JOB; POSSESSIONS).
At other times, He does not give it back – but He enriches your life in other ways so much that you never regret what you gave to Him (ANOTHER RELATIONSHIP; BETTER PLANS; GREATER SECURITY IN HIS MATERIAL PROVISION; MORE INTIMACY WITH HIM & CHRISTLIKE CHARACTER).
This is the crucial issue: Do you believe that God is wise and good in this way, to the extent that you will give Him what He asks? Sometimes we decide that He isn't, so we get outraged that He would test us, and we embitter ourselves against Him and cut ourselves off from the blessings He wants to shower on us. God never cuts us off from His blessing; we cut ourselves off by clutching on to our idols instead of giving them to God.
God will work through your obedience to advance His plan to bless the world
There is another blessing that God gives you when you trust and obey Him: He will work through your obedience to advance His plan to bless the world – usually in ways beyond anything you could imagine. Abraham named the mountain "The Lord Will Provide" (read 22:14a) because God fulfilled His statement to Isaac there. But Moses says there was a significance to what happened on that mountain that pointed to something God would provide in the future (read 22:14b).
Explain biblical typology (SLIDES). God is the ultimate multi-tasker! In the same event He tested Abraham's faith and blessed him through his willingness to sacrifice his son, and He also provided a prophetic picture of how He would bless the world through the sacrifice His Son, Jesus. This is what makes sense of some of the details of this story:
This is why God made Abraham go to this region and mountain. This is the same mountain on which the Jewish temple was built 1000 years later (2 Chron. 3:1), in which the atoning animal sacrifices were offered. And this is the same mountain on which Jesus was crucified 2000 years later to fulfill those animal sacrifices by paying for the sins of the whole world.
This is why God had Abraham offer His only, beloved son. Jesus' famous statement in Jn. 3:16 is probably a purposeful echo of 22:2,12. What God did not make Abraham go through with, He Himself did go through with, because this was the only way we could be forgiven and reconciled to God.
This is why God had Isaac carry the wood to the site and voluntarily submit to his own death. Jesus voluntarily bore His own cross to Golgotha (on this mount) and subjected Himself to crucifixion – because He loves us with a boundless love that freely gives Himself for us.
This is why the angel of the Lord intervened. This "angel" is the Lord himself (see 22:12 – "me"), and is probably the pre-incarnate Christ. As He intervened to spare Isaac's life, He knew that on that site 2000 years later His own life would not be spared – so our sins' penalty of death could be paid. (Is this what Jesus meant in Jn. 8:56?)
This is why God provided the ram to take Isaac's place. Like all of the Old Testament sin offerings, the ram was a picture of God's provision of a blameless Substitute.
GOSPEL: Thus, Abraham and Isaac predicted Jesus' future sacrificial death for humanity's sins. This is one of dozens of Old Testament prophetic predictions that only Jesus fulfilled. No other founder of any world religion has been confirmed in this way. God provided this unique confirmation so that you could have the evidence you need to receive Jesus as your Savior/Messiah (read Jn. 3:16). Will you receive Jesus' sacrificial death for your sins?
CHRISTIAN APPLICATION: I'll bet Abraham marvels today at the ripple-effect of this step of faith. And God will work through your faith-testings to advance His plan in ways that go beyond your present comprehension and will one day make you marvel:
He will work greater endurance into your life for later parts of your race (Jas. 1:2,3). Only God knows how long and steep your race is – and He is training you accordingly (BEV TO ME).
He will encourage other future believers' faith through your example. How many believers have been encouraged by Abraham's faith in Gen. 22 (e.g., LUTHER)? How many could be encouraged by your faith?
He will confirm His character to the watching world. This is what God was doing through Job's testing (Job 1,2) – even though Job did not realize this during his lifetime. In the same way, you and I won't see fully until the next life how our faith under testing has confirmed God's character.
So follow Abraham's example when you are tested!
Conclusion
NEXT WEEK: ????
QUESTIONS & COMMENTS
[1] 22:12 refers not to God's intellectual knowledge of Abraham's faith, but to His relational knowledge. Abraham's test demonstrated to Abraham (and later to others) the reality and maturity of his faith.