Radio Antioch

Rembrandt’s Abraham en Isaac, 1634

 

   This teaching is Radio Antioch Podcast Episode 13.  Click the player above to watch a live presentation of this teaching

   

Genesis 22:1-2     Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.     [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."

      This must have been a stunning revelation from God. Imagine Abraham getting that phone call! And yet Abraham was obedient.   Notice that verse one says that God tested Abraham. Or does it? The King James translation says that God tempted Abraham. The reason for this is that the Hebrew word used here has four meanings:

nacah, a primitive root; to test; by implication to attempt :- adventure, assay, prove, tempt, try.   This is translated in the Old testament as tempted. Tried, Tested, Proved

 

Now, I disagree with the King James Bible using the word Tempted here, as we see in James 1:13

    Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

Other more modern translations translate this as "tested", and I do believe that there was some testing going on. In fact, any time we go through a trial, we have an opportunity to practice all four meanings of the word:

a) We go through a trial.

b) The devil tempts us to make the wrong choice, give up, fall into the trap, respond in the flesh.

c) We have a test, an opportunity to overcome, that may be necessary before we can go to the place in our spiritual journey.

d) If we the test, we prove our self to the world and the spirit realm, building a testimony of righteousness. In the trial our heart and motives are revealed.

 

   Who is one who overcomes? One who has faced the trial and passed the test.

 Genesis 22:3  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.

   Now, we don’t hear any discussion between Abraham and God about this. But notice this- Abraham immediately obeyed God, leaving for Moriah.  This place is understood to be none other than Mt. Moriah, the mountain on which the temple was later built in Jerusalem. The Jews themselves have a tradition  that the altar of burnt offerings in the Temple stood upon the very site of the altar on which Abraham intended to offer up his son.  Mt. Moriah was about 50 miles from Beersheba, plenty of time for Abraham to think about all this. But by the time he got there he had sorted things out a bit.

 

Genesis 22:4-5  On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. [5] He 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."

   Notice that Abraham was now totally walking in faith. He could not reconcile in his mind the Promise on Isaac’s life with the command that he had from God. In an extraordinary act of faith, he obeyed anyway.   The book of Hebrews gives us an idea of what was going on in his head:

Hebrews 11:17-19   By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, [18] even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." [19] Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

  It is common when we have a promise from God that we go through a time where our natural circumstances seem to contradict God’s promise. I call this "the contradiction".

 

Genesis 22:6-11a     Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, [7] Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" [8] Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. [9] When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. [10] Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. [11] But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

 

   The fact that the Angel was right there ready to intervene on a moments notice shows us that God never intended Abraham to kill his son. In fact, in the Hebrew law later given through Moses, Child sacrifice was forbidden. And while Abraham did not have the written Law to guide him, he was nevertheless confident in the Lord.

 Genesis 22:11b -14 "Here I am," he replied. [12] "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." [13] Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. [14] So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."

 

   And God did provide a lamb. Not only for Abraham, but also for us. Jesus Christ was the sacrificial lamb the bore the sin of the world. In this story we begin to see the idea of God providing a substitution for the offering.

   

Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. (KJV translation)

 

  Yehovah yireh,  yeh-ho-vaw’ yir-eh’; from Hebrew 3068 (Yehovah) and Hebrew 7200 (ra’ah); Jehovah will see (to it); Jehovah-Jireh, a symbolical name for Mt. Moriah :- Jehovah-jireh.

 

Genesis 22:15-18  The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time [16] and said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, [17] 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, [18] and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

   The Lord had previously told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars (Gen 15) But this time we see the analogy move to the earth, in the grains of sand. Also, he received the promise that his descendants would take the cities of their enemies.

(Notice that there was NEVER a promise of no battle and no enemies!)

    It is one thing to believe God and trust him when the promise is not yet granted. I have heard people say "if I only won the lottery, I would give it away"  Maybe they would. But it is a whole lot easier to have faith that you would do something before you receive it than to actually part with it after you have received it.

   There are  a number of lessons we can learn from this:

   

   A true worshiper obeys completely the command of God,

   A true worshiper Holds Nothing Back,

   A true worshiper has faith in the Lord to supply everything.

   

   Fulfilling God’s command would have cost Abraham everything. True worship is always costly. It is never free.

 

 

 

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