Sunday, August 1, 2010: Test of Faith

Test of Faith
Genesis 22: 1 – 19.

I. Introduction.

For the past several weeks, I have been preaching from the story of Abraham. I chose to preach on Abraham, because the past two sermon series I have preached have been from the New Testament—specifically, from the teachings of Jesus. I thought it would be good to spend some time in the Old Testament.

But, I had no idea it was going to be this hard. Some of the Abraham stories are hard stories to preach and to understand. To be honest with you, there are several Abraham stories that I wanted to skip. Like the story in Genesis 12 about the way Abraham and Sarah lied to Pharoah. That would have been a good story to skip, but I wanted to cover all the Abraham stories from Genesis, so I couldn’t skip it. Then, Abraham turned around in Genesis 20 and told the same lie to Abimelech. I sure wanted to skip that story, since it was so similar to what Abraham did in Genesis 12…but I couldn’t do it. I wanted to tell the whole story of Abraham.

Of course, there is also the story about the way Abraham and Sarah started doubting God and created their own contingency plan. They just weren’t sure if God was capable of keeping his promise to give them a child and to make them into a great nation. Sarah was well beyond the age of child-bearing, so she offered Abraham a worldly solution to their problem. She offered to allow him to take her slave girl, Hagar, to be his second wife. Abraham and Hagar had a son they named Ishmael. Ishmael was Abraham’s firstborn son and eventually became the father of his own nation. The people we know today as the Muslims. I really wanted to skip that story. For that matter, I wish Abraham himself had skipped that part of his story.

Last week was another hard Scripture. It was the story of Sarah’s jealousy. She didn’t want Hagar’s son to share in her son’s inheritance. So, she insisted that Abraham expel Hagar and Ishmael into the desert to fend for themselves. They were facing certain death, until God intervened and preserved their lives.

Now that I think about it…The entire story of Abraham is a hard story. And this week is no exception. I really don’t want to look at the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. This is the end of the Abraham story in the Book of Genesis. His story began when God called him to go to a strange, new land. God promised to give Abraham a son in his old age. It seemed strange that God would allow a 75 year old man to become a father for the first time. It seemed even stranger when God made Abraham wait another 25 years.

Isaac was the son God promised to Abraham and Sarah. He was born when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old. God didn’t do things as quickly as Abraham would have preferred, but God always keeps his promises.

Then, God did the unthinkable. God commanded Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. Abraham was to build an altar; tie Isaac to the altar; kill Isaac with a knife; and burn him as a sacrifice. This is not a happy story. We don’t like this story.

However, our primary concern with this story is not a theological concern. This story offends us, because it involves a father doing something that just seems wrong. It seems wrong to us, because we live in a world in which the highest priority is to make our children happy. This is not a happy story about a happy father and a happy child. In fact, Abraham was faced with a horrible choice: he could sacrifice everything in his life to make his son happy; or he could sacrifice his son to make God happy.

This is what offends us about the story. We want everyone to be happy. We want Isaac to be happy. We want our own children to be happy. Obeying God does not always make everyone happy.


Read Genesis 22: 1 – 19.


The first verse gives us an insight into the story that no one else knows. The author of Genesis tells us immediately that this is a test. God is testing Abraham. You and I know this is a test, but neither Abraham nor Isaac knows this is a test. They operate throughout the story as if this is a real command from God.

In some ways, this command from God reminds us of God’s original words to Abraham in Genesis 12. In Genesis 12, God spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his hometown and go to a new land. God didn’t tell him where he was going. God simply said, “Go to a land that I will show you.” In other words, God told Abraham to step out in faith; move to a new land; and God would let him know once he got there. In Genesis 22, God told Abraham to take his son Isaac to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him on a mountain “I will tell you about.” Again, God told Abraham to go until he told him to stop.

Another similarity between Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, is the way God spoke to Abraham in progression. For example, in Genesis 12: 1, God said, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go…” God began with the general and progressed to the specific. In Genesis 22: 2, God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go…” Again, God’s word progressed from the general to the specific.

Our English translations don’t list God’s words to Abraham in the right order. The original order is, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac and go…”

According to Genesis, Abraham did not say anything to God. But, there is a famous Rabbinic Midrash that describes a conversation between God and Abraham. God said, “Take your son.” Abraham said, “I have two sons.” God said, “Your only son.” Abraham said, “Both of my sons are the only sons of their mothers.” God said, “Whom you love.” Abraham said, “I love both my sons.” God said, “Isaac.” Abraham was silent…There was no doubt whom God had in mind.

It is true that Abraham had two sons. However, God had already made it clear that only one of those sons would carry on Abraham’s family name. In Genesis 21: 12, God told Abraham, “…it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” There were two sons, but only one son represented Abraham’s future. This is significant, because it reminds us of Abraham’s call in Genesis 12.


II. God Tests.

In both Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, God told Abraham to give up something. In Genesis 12, God told Abraham to leave his country, his people and his father’s household. This was everything Abraham had known for his entire life. This was his history…This was his formative years…This was his past. In Genesis 22, God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, the son he loved, Isaac. This was everything God had promised Abraham. This was his promise…This was his legacy…This was his future. There was a time when God asked Abraham to give up his past. Now, God is asking Abraham to give up his future. But, don’t forget what we read in verse one…This is only a test.

Genesis doesn’t give us a lot of the details we expect in a story like this. We don’t know physical details like how Isaac responded to his father’s strange behavior. We don’t have any psychological details like what must have been going through Abraham’s mind as he and Isaac made the three-day journey to the Mountains of Moriah. But, we have all the details we need to know. God spoke. Abraham obeyed.

Abraham gathered the three things he would need for his sacrifice. He gathered wood, a torch of fire and a knife. Notice what he did with these three items. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Abraham loaded the wood onto Isaac’s back. Throughout the story, Abraham continued to act like a concerned father. Abraham carried the dangerous items. Isaac carried the safe items.

When Abraham and Isaac arrived at the mountain God had chosen, Isaac noticed something was missing. There was wood…There was fire…There was a knife… But, there was no lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham expressed his confidence in God, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son (Genesis 22: 8).”


III. God Provides.

Sometimes we hear Abraham’s words and think he must have known this was a test. He must have known that God would come through at the last moment. But, that is not the case. In Abraham’s mind, God had already provided the lamb for the sacrifice. He thought Isaac was God’s provision. This is an incredible statement of faith. God provides.

In the end, Isaac was not to be the sacrifice. This was only a test. God had something else in mind all along. At the last minute, God spoke to Abraham through an angel, Genesis 22: 12, “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy…” This is when Abraham discovered this was only a test. The angel continued, “…Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son (Genesis 22: 12).”

I have somewhat of a problem with the phrase, “Now I know that you fear God.” Surely God already knew how this would turn out! Of course he knew. That is the only explanation for the ram. Abraham took Isaac all the way to the top of the mountain; he built an altar; he tied Isaac to the altar; he raised the knife to kill the son he loved; an angel stopped Abraham from carrying out the sacrifice; and God provided a ram to offer as a substitute for Isaac. This ram did not appear by accident. This was not good luck. This cannot be explained as a result of nature. God had been working behind the scenes all along—to lead this particular ram to separate from the herd, to climb to the top of this exact mountain, to grow horns that would not fit through the briars, and to get stuck in the place where Abraham could find it just in the nick of time.

Verse one tells us that God is the tester. Verse 12 tells us that God is the provider. But, the entire story tells us that God does not have to choose between being the tester and the provider. God tests and provides at the same time.

It would be wrong for us to separate the testing from the provision. In fact, separating God’s roles can lead us to a false expression of faith. Nominal and complacent Christians want God to be the provider for all our needs and desires without ever testing us. Cynical and bitter Christians like to describe God as an angry, detached tester who does not provide. True faith is like Abraham’s faith, it acknowledges God’s two roles in our lives—testing and providing.

Think about the focal point of the Christian faith—the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. These two events cannot be separated. The crucifixion was God’s greatest test. The resurrection is God’s greatest provision. Or think about what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10: 13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

If God is only the tester, and not the provider, then we might be tempted to think of God as mean. Like a child with a magnifying glass, burning up ants as they come out of an anthill. If God is only the provider, and not the tester, then we might be tempted to say God is not ultimately in control. But, Abraham’s story shows us something different. God set the test for Abraham and immediately set things in motion to provide Abraham with a ram. It was a controlled environment.

Don’t get me wrong here. Abraham could have failed at any point in the test. He could have refused to go to the Mountains of Moriah. He could have argued with God and bargained for a better, easier plan. He could have refused to listen to the angel and carried out the sacrifice of Isaac.

This continues to be the way God deals with those who profess faith. God tests us. But it is always in a controlled environment. Even when he sets the test, God is already working behind the scenes to provide you with all you need. But, failure is a very real possibility…


IV. Conclusion.

There is only one way to know that God provides. You must experience his provision. You must discover for yourself that God provides exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

This is where we make a big mistake as a church. (I’m not talking about our church specifically…I mean all traditional forms of church in our modern day.) We talk about faith as something we believe. We go to church on Sunday morning and learn from the pastor what to believe. We go to Sunday School and small groups and Bible study to learn what to believe. We read the Bible and Christian books to learn what to believe. For some reason, we think Christian faith is all about learning and knowing what to believe. Faith should not be restricted to an intellectual exercise. It is possible to memorize everything in the Bible and never experience God’s provision. It is possible to know everything about God and never discover God’s Grace that is sufficient for all our needs.

True faith looks like Abraham in Genesis 22. He took everything he believed about God’s ability to keep his promises…He took everything he knew about God’s Grace…He took everything he had ever learned about God’s provision…And he acted on it. Abraham was obedient.
Before Genesis 22, Abraham had faith potential in his heart and head. At Mount Moriah, Abraham’s potential faith became faith in action. Don’t walk away from here today with your heart and head full of potential. Go and do something. Put your beliefs into action. If you do, you will discover God’s promises are true…God’s Grace is sufficient…God will provide.