The Test of Abraham
Download MP3The reading today is from Genesis 22. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here am I. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddle his donkey and took 2 of his young men with him and his son Isaac.
Speaker 1:And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the 3rd day, Abraham Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.
Speaker 1:And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
Speaker 1:Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for our burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
Speaker 1:And he said, here am I. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day.
Speaker 1:On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord. Because you have done this, and have not withheld your Son, your only Son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba.
Speaker 1:And Abraham lived at Beersheba. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would, pray with me. Oh Lord, we ask that you would provide for us now. You are our provider. Provide your spirit, your presence to come, and to open up hardened hearts and dull minds.
Joel Brooks:And we hear your word. Lord, don't let me get in the way of this story. Almost feel like after singing, Ferris Lord Jesus, and reading this, we can say amen and go home. You have spoken so clearly. But now I ask that you would speak in power.
Joel Brooks:That truly your name would be lifted up high as we look at this powerful text. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And I pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen. It's been 25 years now for Abraham.
Joel Brooks:25 years of very slow, painful waiting. Abraham is now about a 100 years old, but God has kept his word. And he has given Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age. You can see how this came about in chapter 21. Look at the first two verses there.
Joel Brooks:I love how the narrator tells this story. It says, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Everything has happened exactly as God has planned it. The old, barren woman is now rejoicing with child just as he had declared.
Joel Brooks:And when Isaac was born, Abraham named him Isaac, which means he laughs. He laughs. If you remember when the angel of the Lord first appeared to Abraham and and said, you're going to have a son, and Sarah heard it, she laughed. But it wasn't, you know, an overjoyed kind of laugh, this was a laugh of disbelief. But now her laugh of disbelief has been turned into a laugh of absolute joy and she names her son, he laughs Laughter.
Joel Brooks:People will look at this and they will rejoice. But this laughter is short lived. Just a chapter later in which we just read, and Isaac has now grown up to be a small boy, and then God asked Abraham to do the unthinkable. You you can feel the pain and the very command of God as you look at those first 2 verses in verse 22. Look at verse 2, it says, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, then go and you are to sacrifice him.
Joel Brooks:I cannot imagine the, the panic and pain that flooded in Abraham at that moment upon hearing that command, I'm sure he was thinking, this can't be happening to me. This cannot be happening to me. This I couldn't have heard these words right. I will never forget January 29, 2007. Natalie, my second born was an infant, and, I was asleep, and Lauren came in and woke me up.
Joel Brooks:And I could tell when she woke me up, there was a a a tremor in her voice, and I knew something was really wrong. And she said, I need you to come in here, come in the nursery quick. And went in and she said, something's terribly wrong with Natalie. I don't know what's going on. Something's wrong with her.
Joel Brooks:And so I look and she was burning up. She had over a 105. And we're like, what do we do? What do we do? And so I'm holding her, and I'm praying, and then Natalie looks at me, and her eyes roll up, and then she stops breathing breathing and she turns blue.
Joel Brooks:And just panic. Well, no, no. This this cannot this cannot be happening. This cannot be happening. And and I was thinking, what about CPR class?
Joel Brooks:What do you do to hold her upside down, to hold her up? What do I do at this moment? And Lauren is just crying. She's praying out loud. I'm, I'm thinking, I was like, Lord, I remember praying, Lord, I know you can.
Joel Brooks:I know you can, but please don't. Please don't. Spare much help. Please, I know you can, but please don't. And the Lord spared her.
Joel Brooks:She started breathing again after what seemed like about a minute. The paramedics came, we took her to the hospital. You've seen her. She's crazy, but she's alive. There there's only one thing that I could imagine that would be more painful than the death of a child and that would be the death of your own child by your own hand.
Joel Brooks:That's what Abraham is asked to do. We reach what I would see as the the pinnacle of Abraham's faith. This is the moment that god has been preparing him for when he first called him out of Haran, when he called him in Genesis 12. A matter of fact, it's a very similar language. In Genesis 12 he says, go to the land that I will show you.
Joel Brooks:And when he goes to this land that God shows him, he he builds an altar there and he makes a sacrifice. And now god says, go to this mountain that I will show you. And once again you're to build an altar and you're to make a sacrifice, but this time it's going to cost you a little bit more. So we have to ask this fundamental question when we come to a text like this, and that's, why would Abraham do this? Why should he obey?
Joel Brooks:I mean, why the heck should he obey such a ridiculous, absurd, what seems to be torturous command? I mean, when God first calls Abraham, you know, there's all these blessings saying, you know, are to make your name great, you know, nations are gonna be blessed from you, you know. It's almost like he holds a carrot in front of Abraham. Do this. You'll be blessed.
Joel Brooks:There's no carrot before Abraham here. It's just do this. There's no promise of anything. Just do it. There's only the command.
Joel Brooks:As a matter of fact, in Hebrew, it's not really a hard command. It's it's more like kind of a strong request. Would you do this, Abraham? Would you sacrifice your child? But why should he?
Joel Brooks:I mean, I read this, and I think, why not find an easier God? Why not find a God that's less demanding, easier to serve? And be honest, when when when you hear the word God, when you hear the word Jesus, when you hear the word, you know, Holy Father, almighty God, is this the God that you think of? Right here. God who asked for such a demanding sacrifice Or is this God foreign to you?
Joel Brooks:This story should make us a little uncomfortable. The story begins by saying God tested Abraham. Tested Abraham. Now, who here likes test? You know, y'all y'all like having test?
Joel Brooks:Nobody likes having test. Nobody likes having test. Nobody likes having tests. Yeah, we worship a God who tests us. I know we don't like this part of the story.
Joel Brooks:We like the end of the story. We like a God who provides, but we don't like a God who tests. You know, we just want the God who provides, the God who gives us things, the God who gives us the good job, who gives us, you know, a lovely wonderful spouse, the the God who blesses us, the God who answers our prayers, the God who provides all of these things, but we don't really want the God who test us before providing for us. This is not just the God of the Old Testament. First Thessalonians 2:4, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, So we speak not to please man, but to please God who test our hearts.
Joel Brooks:First Peter 16, and this you rejoice though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. James 112. Blessed, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which has been promised to those who love him. Nothing has changed. We worship the same God, a God who, yes, he does provide, but a God who also tests.
Joel Brooks:But why does he do this? I mean, what what is God trying to accomplish in this test? And once again, why should we obey him? The answer is the same for both of these questions. The answer is that the Lord wants to teach us that he is the rock.
Joel Brooks:He is the rock on which we must build our entire life, and if we build it on anything else it is sinking sand. He alone needs to be our foundation. If we base our happiness, if we base our fulfillment, we base our life, if we base our forgiveness on anything else, other than the solid rock of Christ, it will fail us. It will perish. My 5 year old, Natalie, is, is now beginning to process a lot of these things.
Joel Brooks:Really at the age of 5, children start asking amazing theological questions that stump parents. They stump you even if you're a pastor and, and Natalie is just starting to ask all of these questions and, and she's a little skeptic right now. The other day she said, daddy, you know what I wish. And I said, what do you wish? She goes, I just wish that there wasn't any god at all.
Joel Brooks:It'd be a lot easier if there was no god at all. Like, just shh. Well, pastor, if other parents hear this. Like, I was like, oh, why? What do you mean?
Joel Brooks:She goes, well, I mean, everybody, you know, they're fighting over their god's best, our god's best, you know, everybody has their own gods. It would just be better if there wasn't any god at all. Really, I'm thinking, where did she hear this? And I'm thinking through what kids does she know? And I'm going, I'm making this little, you know, Rolodex going through.
Joel Brooks:I gotta talk to those parents. I said, you know, a better hope, a better prayer would be that everybody comes to know and to love and to worship the one true God. That's a better prayer. To which she responds, and she she always asks questions like this. She's like, but daddy, why should we worship the one true god?
Joel Brooks:And she's asked this question so many times. Why do we worship the one true God? And I've given her so many different answers, really good answers, I thought, at the time. Like, you know, you know, alone is where we can find joy, he alone is where we can find forgiveness, he's the one who created you, he's the one, you know, you can only do what you were created to do by worshiping him, all this stuff. And and yet she still asked.
Joel Brooks:So last time she asked I said, because, Natalie, everything else will fail you. Everything. If you place your ultimate trust in me, I'm not gonna be around forever. I'm gonna die. And I'll fail you even before I die.
Joel Brooks:You place your ultimate trust in your mama, she's gonna fail you. You place your ultimate trust in your your future husband, he's gonna fail you. You you place your ultimate trust and money, it's gonna fail you. And I'm thinking I'm really getting through and she goes, daddy, what does ultimate mean? We have to keep picking up on these conversations.
Joel Brooks:But it's true, everything else will fail us. And so God test us to reveal the false trust we have. To show us that he alone is the rock in which we place our entire life. And so he will test us against things like common sense, lifelong ambition. He'll test us against the affections of our heart, just so he can show us time and time again that he is trustworthy.
Joel Brooks:And so the test here for Abraham is, which is worth more to you, Abraham. And so the test here for Abraham is, which is worth more to you, Abraham. Which is worth more to you, Abraham? Which is it? A relationship with your son or a relationship with me?
Joel Brooks:Who has the affection of your heart? What are you building the affections of your heart on? And the test here for Abraham, it could not be any more heart wrenching because Isaac means everything to him. Not only did he he wait 25 years to have him, but all of God's blessings and promises depend on Isaac being alive. And so to sacrifice him is beyond comprehension, and this isn't just a sacrifice, this is a burnt offering, Which means that he's gonna have to grab his son, hold a knife up to his throat, slit his throat, cut his child into pieces and lay him on the altar and burn him.
Joel Brooks:It's unbearable. And it's a contradiction in his mind. He's like, God's promised me these things, but it's dependent upon these things. And how do these two things work together? Notice that Abraham does not offer one word of resistance.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't try to reason with God. He doesn't plead for the life of his son. Which is really interesting, because you know 2 weeks ago, just 2 weeks ago, in chapter 19, end of 18, God says, hey, I'm gonna destroy these wicked, evil cities. And Abraham steps up and says, don't do it. He begins interceding, pleading on behalf of these wicked people.
Joel Brooks:God says, I want you to go kill your son, not a word of protest. He doesn't accuse God of being ruthless. He doesn't say, God, you're unjust to make such a command. Matter of fact, he doesn't even speak to God. And one one of the reasons, this is just one of the reasons, we don't have time to go into all of them, but one one of the reasons I think he doesn't protest is because he knows that God has right to the first born.
Joel Brooks:God has right to his first born. The Israelites in the desert who are hearing this story from Moses, they would have been aware of this too, that God had right, God had claimed to their firstborn. You see this in several places in scripture. Let me just turn 1 in Exodus 22/29 Probably don't hear that preached on very, very much. Probably don't hear that preached on very much.
Joel Brooks:You saw this when we went through Exodus, when it came to Passover, and you had the Egyptians had sinned against the Lord, and their their punishment is, I'm gonna take all the firstborn. But it wasn't just for the Egyptians, it was also for the Israelites. Said, I'm gonna take your firstborn because all are guilty before him. It says, Israelites Hebrews, the only way that your firstborns can be spared is if you have a substitute or a sacrifice. And so get a lamb, slaughter it, put the blood on the door.
Joel Brooks:That's the only way your firstborn will be spared. I think Abraham knew this, that God had a right to the firstborn of Sarah. I think he knew as he's developing in his relationship with the Lord, Yes, he's developing in love. He's growing in joy, fulfillment, all those things. But he's also growing with a great awareness that God is holy and he is not, and that he has sinned against this God, and that God could call into debt anytime.
Joel Brooks:And he could take his firstborn as payment. Now, I know we might think it's unfair to punish a child for the sins of their father, but you have to understand that we live it's a very ethnocentric view, we live in the most individualistic generation and country that has ever existed. That's just not, you know, religious historians say that. Secular historians will say that. The most individualistic generation that has ever existed.
Joel Brooks:We don't have this concept of stronger concept of the family, like, was present here, In which the firstborn carried with them all the hopes, all the dreams, the lion's share of the inheritance, the the family name, the family honor, and the family guilt. I think if we had seen God asking to sacrifice, for Abraham to sacrifice Sarah, there might have been some protests. But when it came to the firstborn, he doesn't say a single word. He just gets up early in the morning. I think he's sneaking away from Sarah.
Joel Brooks:I don't think Sarah knows. Takes Isaac with him, and he's going to the mountain that God will show him. Abraham has to travel 3 days. 3 days. This is excruciating.
Joel Brooks:Why not just say, over there, sacrifice Isaac. You could be done with it. But no, God draws it out, 3 days of you walking with your child. He's making sure that this isn't Abraham's not just making an emotional decision, but this has to be a decision that, you know, takes sustained obedience. You know, takes sustained obedience.
Joel Brooks:It's got to mean it. Abraham here would have a lot of time to think about what he's doing, a lot of time to turn back. 3 days to remember and think, well gosh, you know, was it the wind? Did I really hear the Lord right on this? He had 3 days to talk himself out of it, but he didn't.
Joel Brooks:On the 3rd day, God shows Abraham the place where he is to make the sacrifice off in the distance. Once again, this is torturous. He doesn't just tell Abraham, stop sacrifice here. He says, look way over there in the distance. Over there on that mountain, that's where you just sacrifice him.
Joel Brooks:And so he knows, there it is, looming over him. Every step he's getting closer and closer to what he has to do. It's just painful. And the way the way the narrator writes this, it's like a it's like a great movie. Just it goes in slow motion here.
Joel Brooks:All these details begin coming out and the story slows down, drawing us in to Abraham's pain. I mean, when it gets to the conversation between Isaac, this little boy and his father, it is just painful. So finally, we reached this place where Isaac is to be sacrificed and Abraham binds his son. No words are spoken between them. And so he gets out his knife ready to cut his son's throat.
Joel Brooks:And at the very last minute, the angel Lord says, Abraham. And it says it again, Abraham, because Abraham is really going through with it. Stop. Stay your hand. And then God provides for Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead.
Joel Brooks:And I can promise you this, that as Abraham went and he got that ram and he sacrificed the ram, all he is thinking is thank you God for this not being my son. Thank you God for sparing my son. God, thank you for letting this ram be the substitute for my firstborn. God, thank you for your, for your for your That's what's sacrifices. That's what's sacrifices.
Joel Brooks:That's what's sacrifices. That's what's sacrifices. That's what's for the next 2000 years. Thank you, God, for sparing us. Thank you, God, for allowing this to be a substitute.
Joel Brooks:Thank you, God, for not calling in the debt. Thank you, God, for not calling in the debt. This near sacrifice of Isaac, and all of the sacrifices that follow ultimately point us to the sacrifice of Jesus. Just like Isaac was the only son of Abraham and Sarah, and they loved him dearly. Jesus is the only begotten son of God, his beloved.
Joel Brooks:But unlike Isaac, Jesus is not spared. The father does call in the dead. I love how Paul picks this up in Romans 8. He he draws out the comparison so well. If if you notice at the end of Genesis 22, you you'll hear these words.
Joel Brooks:In verse 16 says, by myself, I have sworn declares the Lord because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son. Abraham, you didn't withhold him, but you didn't have to sacrifice. Who did not spare his own son, his son was not spared, and will see our debt is paid in full because of his son Jesus. He who did not spare his own son but freely gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? The blessing of Abraham falls on us now.
Joel Brooks:We are indeed blessed because Jesus was cursed, and Jesus took the punishment. Jesus became the sacrifice. Let me tell you, when this hits you, everything changes. When you believe this, and you're Christian, you start realizing there is, And light of such mercy, there is nothing that God cannot demand. All I can do is freely give him back what he has given me.
Joel Brooks:A very life. A very life. My very life. Pray with me. Our father, we thank you.
Joel Brooks:We thank you that you freely gave up your son, Jesus. More than that, you didn't just give him up, but it pleased you to crush him. I can't comprehend that. Jesus, I thank you that like a lamb led to the slaughter, you did not open your mouth. You did not call down legions and legions of angels to say get me out of here.
Joel Brooks:But you embrace the cross, and you paid my debt. I pray this moment right now in a way that I never could, holy spirit, come and burn that on our hearts. It absolutely transform us. We have been redeemed. We pray this in the name of our Lord and our savior Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
