WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOD DOING?
GOD PURIFIES FAITH
GENESIS 22: 1-19
INTRODUCTION
I want to play a little game with you this morning. I’m going to give
a slogan from a commercial and then I want you to give me the product
or company it is a slogan for.
"You deserve a break today" MacDonald’s
"It doesn’t get any better than this" Old Milwaukee
"Have it your way" Burger King
"Defenders of the free world." NetZero.com
We are regularly told by the marketing strategies of our consumer culture
that we deserve a better life. We are regularly told that it is our right
to be happy and healthy and good-looking and well fed. Our politicians
promise us that we deserve to have a clean environment, unlimited economic
growth, a secure retirement, the best schools for our kids and unlimited
access to the best health care in the world without having to pay more
taxes. Our experts tell us that we can have the perfect marriage, perfect
kids, perfect jobs and perfect vacations. It is no surprise that it was
in America that the false teaching of the health and wealth gospel came
to life. Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hin and all their compatriots
are merely repeating the American consumer mantra that you deserve better
than you currently have but with this twist: God thinks you deserve a
break today. It isn’t just Burger King that wants you to have it your
way, but God himself wants you to satisfy all your earthly appetites.
It’s not just Miller Brewing Company that wants you to enjoy the "high
life" but God.
How thoroughly we are infected with this mindset can be seen in how we
respond to life when it doesn’t go our way. We are angry, we complain
and whine, we sue, we protest, we get depressed, we boycott, we curse,
we get divorced, we run away, we run to counselors. You’d think that Christians,
who claim to be followers of the one about whom it was said, "He was familiar
with suffering and acquainted with grief", would know better. But no,
we American Christians believe that because God loves us he will keep
bad things from happening. If bad things happen to you then it must be
your fault because a loving God would never make you suffer. I’ll never
forget how a mature Christian friend who developed colon cancer was told
by another Christian friend that the only reason they were sick was because
they didn’t have enough faith. Christians in these United States tend
to believe that the normal Christian experience should always be like
Abraham’s experience at the end of Genesis 21. He has his son Isaac and
lives in peace in the oasis of Beersheba. His closest neighbors have made
a treaty with him and he is living in the lap of luxury as his flocks
and herds continue to increase under the blessing of God.
But God has other ideas about what it means to live an "abundant life",
as we are going to find out in chapter 22. You see, God is after our eternal
good, not just our temporary good. We are about to see something about
God’s work in our lives that is clearly taught throughout the entire Bible
but which is hardly ever talked about in American churches. God sends
trouble into our lives for our good. God commands us to give up earthly
comforts in order to more faithfully follow him. This morning we are going
to discover some of the reasons for why God does this.
MAIN POINT
God requires that his people experience trouble so that…
I. They learn to depend upon God alone for life and happiness
Look with me at the end of chapter 21. Read vv. 32-34. Here is Abraham,
100 years old, after years of wandering, living in a very peaceful state.
After years of travelling and trouble, his home with Sarah and Isaac is
completely peaceful. He lives at peace with his neighbors. He actually
owns a piece of property, the well at Beersheba. He is worshipping the
eternal God. Here is a man ready to live out the end of his days in easy
retirement and to pass his property and God’s promises on to his son Isaac.
But God isn’t finished with Abraham yet. God still has a work he needs
to do in Abraham’s life. Abraham is not ready for heaven yet. So we are
told in the opening verse of chapter 22 that after he had lived for a
long time in this peaceful state that God tested him.
This word "test" is frequently used of God testing the Israelites during
their years of wandering in the desert. Repeatedly God tests them. Once
he caused them to run out of water and when they came to an oasis the
water was poisoned. Another time he caused them to run out of food and
when they complained he gave them manna from heaven. He says that he tests
them for two reasons, to see if they will trust him and obey his commands
and so that he could do good to them. By using this word, Moses is letting
us know that Abraham is going to go through some very difficult circumstances
but that God has designed these circumstances for Abraham’s good. Circumstances
are sent by God to show us and God that He really is the center of our
lives. If life always goes our way, we may say that we are trusting God
but there is no evidence of faith. There is no evidence that we prefer
God to everything else if there is no suffering in our lives, no hard
obedience required. So God sends to Abraham a trial that is more severe
than anything any of us could possibly imagine.
One day while Abraham is going about his daily business God speaks to
him, calling him by name. Abraham responds to God’s call promptly and
compliantly. Then in a very gentle but firm way God gives a command that
is incomprehensible. We know that this is a test. Abraham only
knows that God is telling him to kill his son. I want you to notice two
things that God does to help Abraham deal with the shock of this command.
First, notice how he describes Isaac. God shows that he is quite aware
of how difficult this command is going to be for Abraham. He acknowledges
that this is his only son and that Abraham has a deep love for this son.
He knows that he is not asking Abraham to do a simple thing but a very
difficult thing. But also notice how similar this command is to the original
command God gave him back in Genesis 12. Read 12:1. There he told Abraham
to leave behind his family and country and go to a place that God would
show him. So now he is commanding him to cut himself off from the family
he loves, Isaac, at a place he will show him. In doing this God is reassuring
Abraham that even though this sounds like the worst possible thing, yet,
just as God has brought good out of his leaving Haran behind, so will
he bring good out of the slaughter of Isaac. He is seeking to get Abraham
to trust him and his word.
It’s as if God is saying to him, "Abraham you know how impossible it
seemed to you that you could become a great nation as you had no children.
You know how impossible it seemed that you could be kept safe among the
nations if you left behind the security of your own people and country.
Yet you see how I have cared for you through these 30 years and given
you a son just as I promised. Now I want you to trust me. I want you to
know that no matter how cruel and unjust and incomprehensible this command
seems to you it is for your good and will result in greater good in the
end.
How does Abraham respond? He immediately obeys. No complaining, no arguing,
no questioning. The very next morning he gets up early, saddles his donkey,
gets two of his young servants to go with and then he cuts the wood that
he will use to burn up his son on the altar that he will build. He silently
and methodically goes about the business of obeying God’s command. He
doesn’t tell Isaac or his servants what he is doing, he simple gathers
together what he needs and sets out for the place God had told him about.
For three days he travels with his donkey loaded down with wood and his
servants and Isaac walking along behind. Two nights they stop and cook
supper and sleep together under the brilliant stars. What must it have
been like? It would be hard to sit by the bed of a sick son waiting for
him to die but it is infinitely more difficult to know that you are the
required to kill him.
While we are not told what Abraham felt we are shown how he thought.
Notice the two things he says, first to his servants and then to Isaac.
When he sees the place in the distance he stops and tells 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." Did you hear what he said?
First he says, "we will worship". How do you worship a God who commands
you to kill your son? How do you love and trust such a God? Then he says,
"We will come back to you." What does he mean, "we"? Is he not planning
on going through with it? Is he lying to the servants so that they won’t
try to stop him? Or, could it be that Abraham has figured something out?
Abraham knows that somehow, someway, both he and Isaac are going to return
from the mountain.
Then after loading the wood on the back of Isaac, he is at least a teenager
by this time, he takes the fire and the knife and together the aged father
and the teenage son silently begin to climb the mountain. Then in one
of the most tender scenes in all of literature Isaac says, "Father?" Abraham
replies, "Here I am, my son." Then Isaac in complete innocence and complete
confidence in the love and wisdom of his father says, "The fire and wood
are here but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham replies,
"God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." What
anguish must this question have brought to Abraham and yet here we see
how it is that Abraham has been so steadfast in his obedience to God’s
command during these three days. He knows that God will provide the way
out from this seemingly impossible situation. God will provide.
What is it that Abraham thought during these three days? The command
of God contradicts the promise of God. Three times God has promised Abraham
that it is through Isaac that He will make Abraham’s descendants into
a great nation. Yet, God is commanding that the son of promise be killed.
Is God a cruel and evil tyrant who delights in tormenting humans by impulsively
promising one thing and then nullifying what he promised? Is he a God
of contradiction? Abraham knows that this is not what God is like. He
knows that the God of the whole earth will do what is right. He is good
and just and can be trusted. So for three days he puzzles over how it
is that God can command him to kill his son and yet keep his promise to
produce through Isaac a multitude of descendants. We are given the conclusion
he comes to in Hebrews 11: 19, "Abraham reasoned that God could raise
the dead." By the time that Abraham had reached the mountain, he knew
that he was going to see a miracle. He knew that God was going to bring
back Isaac from the ashes of the fire. He did not know how, but he knew
that God would provide. The God who had brought Isaac forth out of the
deadness of his and Sarah’s bodies could just as easily bring back Isaac
from the dead. He still must go through the horrifying and terrible execution
but he was able to do it because he knew that God was going to fulfill
his promises by bringing Isaac back from the dead.
Here is the very reason that God sends trials and difficulties into our
lives. He wants us to learn that he alone can be trusted. He is proving
that even if every other support and comfort is taken away from us, even
if it appears that every promise he ever made is not true, He can be trusted.
We so easily become dependent on the things that God gives rather than
on the God who gives them. God requires that we have everything stripped
away so that we can see that he alone can be our life and our happiness.
His promises can sustain us. The Christian life is not just a bunch of
religious mumbo-jumbo but rather the source of all hope and happiness.
Neither we nor God himself can see this to be the case except through
his sending into our lives trouble. Only when we have nothing else to
give us hope and yet we remain hopeful can God be seen to be sufficient
and our faith authentic. Will we hold onto God and his promises even when
it appears he has failed us and his promises aren’t true?
God requires that his people experience trouble so that…
- They can learn to depend upon Him alone for life and happiness
- And…
II. They can experience the joy of God’s provision in Christ
Abraham and Isaac reach the summit of the mountain, the place God had
told him to go to. Abraham, with Isaac watching, gathers stones to build
an altar as he has so many times before in his life. Then he takes the
wood off Isaac’s back and arranges it on the altar. Then he takes Isaac
and binds his hands and feet and lays him on top of the wood he has carried
up the mountain. Abraham then stretches out his hand and takes the knife
and prepares to cut his son’s throat. Then the angel of the Lord calls
out from heaven with great urgency, "Abraham! Abraham!" And Abraham once
again responds with, "Here I am". "Do not lay a hand on the boy. 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."
Then Abraham looks up from his son, bound and lying on the altar, to
see a ram caught by its horns in a bush. He cuts the ropes that bind his
son and gets the ram and kills it and offers it as a burnt offering in
place of his son. So he names this mountain, "The Lord will provide".
Then in later years it becomes a proverb among the Jewish people, "On
the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided."
This is so amazing. Can you imagine the joy and relief that must have
flooded Abraham’s heart as he heard that voice and saw that ram? What
ecstasy as Abraham substitutes the life of the ram for the life of his
son. But there are two things here that make this even more amazing. First,
where is Mt. Moriah? In 2 Chronicles 3:1 we are told that Solomon built
the temple of the Lord on Mt. Moriah. This is the same place that the
Jewish people worshipped God for hundreds of years. Do you know what happened
in that temple every morning and evening? A one year old male sheep, a
ram, was sacrificed on the altar of burnt offering. In addition, hundreds
of other animals were offered on that altar for the sins of the Jewish
people. In addition, it is on this mountain that the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ, was put to death for the sins of all those who will trust him
alone for their salvation.
Second, notice the tense of the verb that Abraham uses when he names
the mountain. He does not name it, "The Lord provided", past tense, but,
"The Lord will provide", future tense. Abraham doesn’t name the mountain
to commemorate God’s providing a ram in place of Isaac but rather he looks
into the future and names it for a lamb God will provide in the future.
Jesus in John 8 makes an incredible statement. The Jewish leaders have
been claiming that Abraham is their father. In the midst of their discussion
Jesus says this, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing
my day; he saw it and was glad." What Jesus is saying here is two things.
First, Abraham knew that all the promises of blessing that would come
to his descendants and through his descendants to the world would come
through a Savior who would be one of his descendants. When he rejoiced
in God’s promise of a son, he was not simply rejoicing in Isaac, but in
the one who Isaac represented, Jesus. However, he didn’t know how that
blessing would come until this incident with Isaac. In this incident,
Abraham suddenly realized how it was that God would bless all the nations
through this Savior. He understood that this Savior would come and suffer
and die as a substitute for all of those whom God had chosen for himself,
like the ram was killed in place of Isaac. He also knew that this Savior
would not stay dead, but as Isaac was figuratively raised from the dead,
so this Savior would be literally raised from the dead. Abraham was saying
here, "Yahweh will provide a lamb in the future who will suffer and die
and be raised to life in place of and for the sake of all God’s chosen
people."
Abraham would never have seen the glory of Christ in his death and resurrection
if God would not have required him to go through this severe trial. It
is the same in our lives. One of the chief ways God enables us to see
the greatness of Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf is when we
are confronted with hardship here. When all hope of earthly comfort is
stripped away, then we see how precious is the dying of Jesus for our
sins. When life is happy and secure in this world, when we have all that
we need, then the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life
in Christ seem to be worth very little. They are dim in the brilliant,
artificial light of this world’s abundance. But, if God takes away your
health or your job or your spouse or your children, then how precious
does the death and resurrection of Jesus become to your soul. You discover
that he is glorious because he has secured all God’s promises for you.
His death assures you of the Father’s love and his resurrection assures
you that better times are coming. This is but for a moment and then there
will be glory. When life is going well we do not live in this hope. We
live in the hope of the weekend or of a vacation or a pay raise or a new
house or new baby or a new girlfriend. When God takes away all other support,
then do we see how precious is Jesus and how enduring is the hope he gives.
(Talk about Iris P.)
God requires that his people experience trouble so that…
- They can learn to depend upon Him alone for life and happiness
- They can experience the joy of God’s provision in Christ
- And…
III. They can confirm their faith and receive the reward of faith
(vv. 15-19)
Now notice what the angel of the Lord says to Abraham. He repeats the
promise that he made to Abraham in the beginning of his journey but with
some marked differences. This is the greatest statement of God’s promise
yet. First, God swears by himself. This is the only place in the whole
Bible where God swears by himself. In other words, he declares that the
only way this promise will fail to be fulfilled is if he, God, ceases
to exist. This is an ironclad promise. Second, notice that not only will
his descendants be as numerous as the stars but he intensifies it by adding
that they will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Third, notice
that he doesn’t just say he will bless, but that he will surely
bless. He will not simply make his descendants numerous but he will surely
make them numerous. Fourth, he promises for the first time that his descendants
will conquer all their enemies. Finally, he reaffirms that all the nations
of the earth will be blessed through his descendants.
Notice that the reason for God’s reaffirmation and intensification of
this promise is twice stated. God swears to fulfill his promise to Abraham
"because you have not withheld your son, your only son" and "because you
have obeyed me". What are we to make of this? Is God now saying that we
are saved by our works? Does God reward Abraham with this great promise
like an employer who pays his employee for 40 hours of work? Does this
contradict what we have seen throughout the whole story of Abraham that
God called him and saved him not based on anything that Abraham did, for
he is clearly sinful, but simply by his own gracious will? Does this contradict
Genesis 15:6 which says, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to
him as righteousness"?
No, Abraham is not the recipient of these promises because of his own
goodness or righteousness. Rather we are seeing here what true faith looks
like. One of the most famous preachers that ever lived was C.H. Spurgeon.
He said it this way, "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that
saves is never alone." He said this in commenting on James 2 which is
one of two places in the NT where this story is referred to. James writes,
"You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when
he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his
actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what
he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God
and it was credited to him as righteousness,’"…
"His faith was made complete by what he did". The evidence of our faith
is seen in how we live. There’s a story in Mark 2 that I just love. Jesus
was in a house in Capernaum. Four friends come carrying another friend
on a stretcher who has been paralyzed from birth. They want to take him
to Jesus to get him healed but they couldn’t get into the house because
there were so many people crowded into it. So they climbed up on the roof
of the house, dug a hole in the dirt roof and lowered their friend down
through the hole in front of Jesus. We are told that Jesus "when he saw
their faith, said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.’"
When did Jesus declare that the man’s sins were forgiven? When he saw
their faith.
How do you see faith? When four friends dig a hole in the roof and lower
their paralyzed friend through it. When you take your only son at God’s
command and stretch out your hand to kill him. When you let your elderly
father tie you up and lay you on the altar and watch him take the knife
and you do not struggle or question what he is doing. When you love your
wife even though she is mean to you because Jesus told you to love her
no matter what. When you don’t call your brother a name after he calls
you a name because Jesus told you not to retaliate. When you stop watching
pornography on the internet by getting rid of your internet connection
because Jesus tells you to be pure. When you tell your neighbor about
Jesus even though he talks negative about Christians because you love
to honor Jesus, no matter what people think about you. When you continue
to seek Jesus and hope in him even though you lost your job. When you
continue praying and reading the Scriptures and loving Jesus even after
your child dies.
God is committed to getting all his children into heaven. He does it
through our faith. Therefore, the most important thing to God is that
we exercise and grow in our faith, in our trust in him and his promises
to us. We will not exercise faith or look forward to the reward of faith
in heaven if we don’t have to. So God sends trouble into our lives either
by requiring an obedience that makes no earthly sense or by sending suffering
into our lives. Is there an Isaac in your life? Is there something that
God has given you that has replaced God in your love and in your hope?
Is God asking you to kill it, to die to it, to hope in God alone? Is there
suffering God has brought into your life and you are angry and resentful
towards God? Do you need to quietly submit to it and hope in Christ and
all his promises alone, rather than fighting against the suffering?
God requires that his people experience trouble so that…
- They can learn to depend upon Him alone for life and happiness
- They can experience the joy of God’s provision in Christ
- They can confirm their faith and receive the reward of faith
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
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use is other than outlined above, please contact River Hills Community
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