Genesis Lecture 14

Genesis Lecture 14

GOD TESTS ABRAHAM

Genesis 22:1-19

Key Verse: 22:18

“And through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Today’s passage is about Abraham’s test. No one likes a test from a driver’s licence test to university final exam. Whether they are small or big, all kinds of tests are burned in our lives. But through the test we can find out what we lack so that we may grow up further steps. God test us not to give us hard time but to make us mature and bless us. We have learned God had blessed Abraham in many ways. God had given him an abundance of material blessings. God had given him a son Isaac. God promised Abraham on his call, “I will bless you. You will be a blessing.” As he promised God blessed Abraham in every way. 24:1 says, “The LORD had blessed him in every way.” But this was not the end. God had one more blessing for Abraham: He wanted to make him the source of blessing for all nations. This is the spiritual blessing that makes a man's life fruitful and useful. In this chapter, God trains Abraham in faith until he can be a source of blessing for all people.

I. HERE I AM (1-8)

Look at verse 1. “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied.” “Some time later” means after God had given Abraham the covenant son Isaac, and after Abraham had sent Ishmael away. It has passed ten to twelve years since Isaac was weaned. Isaac is now old enough to carry a load of firewood for the sacrifice of an animal. God calls Abraham by his covenant name, “Abraham.” God changed his name Abram, a noble father to Abraham, the father of many nations. It is a reminder that God has a large purpose for Abraham. God did not call Abraham for his happiness only. God called him to make him a source of blessing and bless the whole world through him. God’s clear purpose for Abraham was to bless the whole world through him. For this God tested Abraham. The Hebrew word “tested” does not mean “to entice to do wrong.” With a personal object it means “test another to see whether the other proves worthy.” Youngblood, R. F. said, “Satan tempts us to destroy us, but God tests us to strengthen us.” God tested Abraham, not to trip him and watch him fall, but to deepen his capacity to obey God and thus to develop his character. Just as fire refines ore to extract pure metals, God sometimes refines us through difficult circumstances. When God called him, Abraham immediately answered, “Here I am.” It shows that Abraham's heart is open to God all the time. He is spiritually ready to do whatever God commands him to do.

How did God test Abraham? Look at verse 2. “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’” Abraham had hardly expected this command: “Sacrifice your son as a burnt offering.” It was so difficult for Abraham to obey this command. God knew how much Abraham loved his son. So God described his son as “your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” Ten years ago God had told Abraham to send Ishmael away. Then Abraham was greatly distressed because he loved his son Ishmael. Now God is telling him to sacrifice Isaac, the covenant son. This is much harder than sending Ishmael away. He was to sacrifice Isaac whom he loved, as a burnt offering. It means to kill his son and burn him on the altar.

Why did God test Abraham’s faith through his son Isaac? Isaac was Abraham’s dearly loved, long-awaited son, and he was the visible evidence of God’s covenant with him. All Abraham’s hope for God’s blessing was wrapped up in Isaac. If anything might become an idol in Abraham's heart, it was Isaac. God's servant cannot hold idols in his heart. God was training Abraham to put God first. When God blesses us by giving us our heart's desire, it is easy to become so attached to the gift that we forget God, the Giver. God's best blessings must be given back to God if they are to remain blessings. Children often cling to the gift and forget their parents. Parents love their children and buy them interesting toys. But the children forget their parents; they are only interested in the toys. What the parents want their children to do is to remember their parents and say “thank you” to their parents. God is our heavenly Father. He gives us the best things. He gave us even His beloved Son as a ransom sacrifice for our sins. Since he has given us the best, he can ask us to give him back the best thing. Since God has given us Jesus whom he loves most, he can ask us to sacrifice anything we love most. It is one thing to claim to trust God’s word when waiting for something; it is quite another thing to trust and obey His word after it is received. This is a test of how much Abraham would obey God’s word. Would he cling to the son whom he loved, or would he still obey and return him to the Lord? It is the most difficult test for Abraham to obey.

How did Abraham respond to God's test? Look at verse 3. “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. Abraham had a habit of obeying God promptly. He got up early in the morning to do hard things. It took three days to reach the region of Moriah. Abraham didn't tell anyone what he was planning to do. He couldn't tell Sarah; he couldn't tell the servants; he didn't tell Isaac. This was a lonely decision which he must make before God.

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham 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.” There is no doubt in Abraham’s mind-Isaac would be returning with him. When he arrived in the region of Moriah, he left the servants and took Isaac and the two of them went on together up the mountain. Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac, while he carried the fire and the knife. As father and son started to walk a distance from the servants, Isaac took notes of what they were carrying and asked his father, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Abraham must have been momentarily shaken when Isaac asked him, "Father, where is the lamb?" But his trust in God's love and his commitment to obey God's word was not moved. Abraham did not doubt God's love; he did not live by his feelings. He lived by faith in God's word, and he expressed his faith in absolute obedience. It had taken him 25 years of training in faith to come to this point. Abraham didn't try to explain. He trusted God. He knew God loved him. He had God's peace in his heart. Through the years of God's training, Abraham had learned to trust in God. He believed that in every situation, the Lord would provide. If God gives his servant a task to do, no matter how impossible it may seem, when his servant does everything he can to obey, the Lord will provide. The Lord is the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. He is the Giver of life. The Lord had promised, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” God keeps his promises. Hebrews 11:17-19 says that Abraham believed that God would keep his promise; he believed that the Almighty Creator God could raise the dead and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. When we cannot understand what he is doing or how he is leading us, we can take hold of his promises and obey his commands with confidence that the Lord who raised Jesus from the dead will provide.

II. NOW I KNOW THAT YOU FEAR GOD (9-19)

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. He did not hold back or try to protect his son. He bound him and placed him on the wood. Isaac must have quietly trusted his father, for he knew that his father loved him more than life itself. Abraham took the knife. He was about to kill his son from his heart. What did the angel of the Lord say to him? Look at verses 11-12. “But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’” The “fear of God” entails an obedience to God’s revelation of his moral will out of recognition that he holds in his hands life for the obedient and death for the disobedient. The fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom, it is also the foundation of faith.

Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. The Lord indeed had provided the lamb for the sacrifice. God was looking forward to the perfect Lamb Jesus whom he would provide to take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). Abraham offered the ram God provided and worshiped God. Abraham named that place YHWH Jireh--the Lord Will Provide. He had learned an important lesson of faith: God provides everything for the person who loves and fears him. We must learn this lesson. The only way to learn it is to offer our Isaac to God. If we experience “the Lord will provide” faith, we learn the secret of the life of faith. When we have this secret, we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days.

Look at verse 15-18. “The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, ‘I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.’” God reaffirmed his covenant with Abraham with an unchangeable oath (Heb 6:13-17). God promised that because Abraham had obeyed him and had not withheld even his only son, God would surely bless Abraham with descendants like the sand of the seashore; those descendants would take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through Abraham's offspring, all nations on earth would be blessed. God would keep this promise by all means. God is able to raise up descendants of Abraham from the stones on the ground. The course of God's redemptive history had been set in motion. It would continue to flow until it reached its climax in Jesus Christ. Through his death for our sins and his resurrection, the sin problem of mankind would be solved and new life given to those who believe in him. Since then Abraham had passed his test God would raise up a people who could be a kingdom of priests to share the good news of salvation and life through Jesus. God is still working to keep his promise to Abraham.

God called Abraham as a source of blessing. God blessed the world because Abraham believed in him and obeyed him. God said to Abraham “because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” We think of blessings as gifts to be enjoyed in ourselves. When our children study well or our business becomes successful, we say, “Hallelujah! God has blessed my family.” But God wants to bless not only us but also others. He wants to bless the world. When God blesses us, his blessings are intended to overflow to others. If we keep God’s blessings within my family, within my church, within ourselves only, they are not truly blessed. The true blessings of God must be overflowed to others. God has called each of us as a little Abraham. Everyone has something they love most-money, children, fame, power or anything. God wants us to offer something we really love not to test us our heart and faith and to bless us more. When we give to God what he asks, he returns to us far more than we could. When we love God with all our heart and obey him and offer him our “Isaac,” God will bless us abundantly. May God help us be a blessing to the world!