Personalities of the Old Testament #8 Abraham Part 3 "Faith Regained"

 This week we’ll continue with our study on Abraham.  Last week we looked at his struggle with faith.  It centered around God’s declaration that he would have a son, through his wife Sarah.

If you remember Abraham was lamenting the fact that he had no children and that Eliezer of Damascus would be his heir:

Genesis 15:2-4 NKJV

But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" Then Abram said, "Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!" And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."

In fact, look at this Abraham laughed when God told him his ninety-year-old, barren wife would have a child.

Genesis 17:16-17 NKJV

And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"

Sarah also laughed when presented with the news:

Genesis 18:12-13 NKJV

Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'

They had even gone to the extent to take Sarah’s maidservant and cause her to conceive a child, because they couldn’t see how God could cause her to have a child.  This is a picture of Abraham’s loss of faith.  This s when the “Father of our Faith” allowed his faith to fail.

Even so, God wasn’t done with Abraham. He set a test for Abraham:

Genesis 22:1-2 NKJV

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Take now 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."

God is testing Abraham on his obedience ad faith.  Think about this God has made a promise to Abraham that he would have a son through Sarah.  He promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation.  He promised that through him all the nations of the world will be blessed.

Now, though, God is telling him to sacrifice that same son; the son of the promise.  It’s through Isaac that all of the promises were to be made true.

Genesis 21:12 NKJV

But God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.

Isaac’s descendants will inherit the land promised to Abraham.  Isaac’s descendants are the ones through whom Jesus will be born.  They are the ones through whom the world will be blessed. 

Space and Time

This promise was originally made to Abram (Abraham) twenty-five years earlier.  This tells us that God has a longer-range view of events than we do.  We see things only in the present, what’s happening before us at any given moment, but God can see through time.  He can see outcomes. 

This is kind of a difficult concept, but God always was.  He has no beginning and no end.  He is outside of time as we understand it.  Human beings are constrained by space and time, but God is not. That’s why the Bible has statements like:

2 Peter 3:8 NKJV

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Twenty-five years may be a long time for us, but it isn’t a long time for God.  We get caught up in the idea that God would respond to us in a time that seems timely to us.  I talked to someone in church one time about tithing.  I told them that God would bless if they would tithe.  After all this has been my experience.  They said “Okay, I’m going to tithe.”  They started tithing, but then gave up.  I asked, “What happened?”  They said, “I tithed for three weeks and there was no blessing!”

A lot of the time, it’s faithfulness over time that sees the blessing.  It isn’t a one and done kind of thing.  When we first got married, we got a word from God through Pastor Glen Cluck.  It turned out to be a prophetic word, but it took at least twenty-five years to come to fruition.  Over all that time we continued to believe and stay faithful. 

Abraham received a long-range prophecy from the mouth of God.  Abraham must have struggled a bit with God’s timeline, just like we do, or he wouldn’t have agreed to impregnating Hagar.  Twenty-five years later Isaac was born.  This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy.

The Testing of Abraham

Look again at Genesis 22:1-2:

Genesis 22:1-2 NKJV

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Take now 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, God tells Abraham, “Here is the child I promised.  This is the one that I said would be the beginning of your lineage.  The one who will inherit all the promises I made to you.  Now take him and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah.”

How would you react to that?  Would you be hugely disappointed?  Would you be obedient to what God is asking.  Think about your children, would you be able to do this thing?  God doesn’t always ask for easy things.   Sometimes, he asks for difficult things.

So, what does Abraham do?

Genesis 22:3 NKJV

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Once again, Abraham responds to God’s call and immediately leaves for Mount Moriah. This was a journey, mount Moriah wasn’t next door it was more than a three-day walk.

Genesis 22:4-5 NKJV

Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you."

You guys wait here, and we’ll go and worship!

Genesis 22:6-8 NKJV

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.

Isaac is beginning to put it together.  Look, here’s the wood, and the fire, but there’s no lamb to burn.  Abraham makes a faith statement here…God will provide.  He’s not just trying to hide it from Isaac.  He’s not just trying to keep from telling Isaac, “you, you’re the lamb!”  He truly believes that God will provide an offering. 

Look at what happens:

Genesis 22:9-10 NKJV

Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

I think this is an interesting moment, right here.  Abraham is following God’s instruction.  He knows that all the promises that God made to him are tied to Isaac.  He is fully prepared to o through with this.  He’s fully prepared to sacrifice Isaac, I fact he takes the knife to do that.

What makes this so interesting is Isaac’s response during all of this. Abraham is 100+ years old but Isaac is much younger.  He’s not a child, probably a young adult.  I would think he‘s much faster and stronger than Abraham.  He could have resisted.  He could have fought.  He could have run away, but he submitted to what God had called Abraham to do.  We talk about the faith of Abraham but right here is great faith also. 

Abraham knew that all the promises of God rested in Isaac, but he decided that he was going to do what God asked.  Why?  Here is the answer to that question:

Hebrews 11:17-19 NKJV

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

He was convinced that even if he sacrificed Isaac, God would raise him up in order to deliver on his promises.  Can you believe like that in your own life?  What if God called you to sacrifice that thing in your life that’s important to you?  Would you be willing to put it on an altar and sacrifice if God asked you to do that?  Isaac is the most important thing in Abraham’s life and God said, “Give Isaac to me!”

Remember the story of the rich, young ruler.  Jesus asked him to sell his possessions and follow Him.  He couldn’t do it!  His possessions were too important to him.  What do you have in your life that you couldn’t give up if God asked?

Look at how this whole thing ended up:

Genesis 22:10-13 NKJV

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

God did provide the lamb for the sacrifice.  He was testing Abraham, “I know that you fear God…” Do you think God tests our faith?  I believe that He does.  There may be a point where God asks you for something…can you do what Abraham did?

Summary:

Abraham responded immediately to God’s call to offer Isaac.  No hesitation. 

He believed that even if he sacrificed Isaac, that God would raise him up in order to bring about his promises.

Isaac had great faith as well to submit to this.

Abraham also believed in God’s provision.  We sing that chorus Jehovah-jireh; this is where it comes from.  Jehovah-jireh literally translates as the Lord Who Provides.

God tests our faith to strengthen it and reveal its depth.