Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ (Ro 1:7). Amen.
At times a word gives us some interesting insight into its meaning. We may not be aware of that when we use it and still be correct in our conversation. Take the word “provision,” for example. If we divide it up into its two parts, we get “pro” and “vision”—“before sight.” Or “seeing before.” So when we make provisions, we take proper steps ahead of time because we recognize what is necessary. A mother may scratch down a shopping list so that she has what she needs to put another delicious supper on the table for her family. If it is tacos, you can’t forget the black olives.
The noun is “provision.” The verb is “provide.” That is what the Lord does. He sees to it beforehand. The Lord will provide. And he always will.
Twenty-five years is a long time to wait for something. Just do some simple math quickly. Subtract twenty-five from your age right now. (You don’t have to get out your calculator on your phone. Round up or down.) That puts some of you in negative numbers, others of us into darker hair. That is how long Abraham waited for the Lord to make good on his promise. When he was 75, God assured him: “I will make you into a great nation” (Ge 12:2). Ultimately the Savior would come from him (Ge 12:6). But at the moment, Abraham (which means “father of many”) and Sarah had no children. But Abraham trusted that the Lord would not fail him on this or forget about that for him. He would provide.
And he did—when Abraham was 100 years old (Ge 21:5). Isaac. This miracle baby certainly brought joy and laughter to his aging parents (Ge 21:6).
And then one day God came calling. Moses tells us right away: “God tested Abraham” (Ge 22:1). We know this up front. Abraham didn’t. It is not like what I remember growing up. There would be a digitized voice from the TV: “This is a test of the emergency broadcasting system. This is only a test.” In other words, there is no reason to get excited when you hear that obnoxious beeping that rivals the pleasant sound of the buzzing of an alarm clock. We know the end of the account. Abraham was at the beginning of it.
This test was for Abraham’s benefit, not God’s. As with any test, God wanted to purify his faith. So “he said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied” (Ge 22:1). Notice the polite response along the lines of: “Right here. At your service.” It is the opposite of the child playing on his tablet when mom summons him to unload the dishwasher, “What?!” He obviously doesn’t want to be bothered. That is not Abraham.
And then the command: “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah” (Ge 22:2). There was no mistaking God’s message with the four, clear qualifiers:
your son,
your only son,
Isaac,
whom you love.
This was not for some father/son bonding time like a weekend camping trip. “Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Ge 22:2). Yes—what was presented was to be entirely torched. It signified complete dedication and symbolized total devotion to God.
This was an opportunity for Abraham consciously to put God first. I compare it to school. In theory, a student has homework. A teacher puts that into reality when he or she assigns 30 math problems for tomorrow. It is a First Commandment issue. First in order and in importance. “You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things. It is way too easy to say, “I love you,” on Valentine’s Day. It is much more difficult to show “I love you” every day. As good and God-pleasing a parent’s love for his child is—and it is, it is not to crowd out his love for God. Jesus once commented something similar: “Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37). The emphasis is on “more than.”
That trial was specific to Abraham. We will let that to his wisdom. God will provide a particular testing of our faith when he feels that it is necessary so that nothing clouds our love for him. As he tailors it to us individually—no one size fits all, he wants to refine our faith. He desires and deserves the first place in our hearts.
We can understand the intense struggle. Not only did it seem to violate a father’s love for his son, but also to cut off his hope of ever being saved. God had been very clear: “My covenant I will establish with Isaac” (Ge 17:1). He was one who would carry on the bloodline of the Messiah. Isaac was Abraham’s link to the Savior. How could he hope to be right with God? Luther accurately summarized his predicament: “To human reason it must have seemed either that God’s promise would fail, or else this command must be of the devil and not of God.”
That is what makes the next words so amazing. “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” (Ge 22:3). There was no delay like grabbing a second cup of coffee or excuses like rescheduling a dentist appointment—the next morning. His was a prompt and an obedient faith—no procrastination or hesitation.
And it wasn’t like it was down the street. “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance” (Ge 22:4). It was a perhaps a 50-mile walk. There was plenty of time to think this through.
When he reached the site, he took leave of the two men whom he brought with them. But his order to them is instructive: “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you” (Ge 22:5).
“We will worship” (Ge 22:5). Abraham was emphatic. That is what this was in his mind—worship. He was declaring, “Lord, you have my heart. All of it.”
“Then we will come back to you” (Ge 22:5). Abraham was determined. “We are going to make it down this mountain. The two of us.” Somehow, someway God would have to work out the logistics—even if it involved bringing Isaac back from the dead. It was God’s problem, not his. The writer to the Hebrew Christians gives us some insight into Abraham’s attitude: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who received the promise was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (He 11:17-19).
All Abraham had was God’s word. “Through Isaac” (Ge 21:12). And he was going to hold on to that. When the Lord provides a testing of faith for us, we grab on to God’s words of promise as he speaks to us in his Word—whether we see it or not. That can only come from listening—over and over again. We run to them because God does not lie. He will not leave us (He 13:5). He will cause it—whatever the “it” is—to be for our eternal good (Ro 8:28). The Lord will provide.
And then the drama unfolds. “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. … The two of them went on together” (Ge 22:6). Every step onward and upward must have been strenuous—not because of the incline, but because of the intent.
It was Isaac who broke the silence. “‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’” (Ge 22:7). Isaac’s logical inquiry must have cut deeper than the instrument in Abraham’s hand. And Abraham offers a considerate reply that spared Isaac of the details and at the same time demonstrates his confident faith. “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Ge 22:8). God will see to it.
The details pile up. “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. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Ge 22:10,11).
He wasn’t bluffing. He was ready (Ja 2:21-23). With his hand held high, the voice of the angel of the LORD, the Son of God himself, was heard. “Abraham! Abraham!” (Ge 22:11). Two times because it was doubly urgent. And that familiar comeback: “Here I am” (Ge 22:11). “Right here.” The Lord stopped him because it was obvious what Abraham’s aim was. The necessary sacrifice was made. “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” (Ge 22:12). There was reverence and there was respect for the one and only God.
But God is not done. He sees to the sacrifice. “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” (Ge 22:13). Abraham was right. The Lord will provide. And the Lord did provide. A substitute sacrifice—a ram. That animal was burnt up on the altar rather than Isaac. That is why the hill was properly named. “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’” (Ge 22:14). Father and son did go down and did go back to the two servants. Abraham left there will a deeper appreciation for his God and his son. Faith was beating in Abraham’s heart along with life still beating in Isaac’s heart. It was just as Abraham’s definite faith declared.
That really is what the rest of Scripture shares—a substitute. Jesus is the Substitute. What Abraham was willing to do—sacrifice his son, that is what God did. Possibly near this site. As the apostle Paul pointed out: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Ro 8:32). The Father did not hold back his Son, but sent him to the cross where he laid down his life. For us. For our benefit. In our place. All because God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (Jn 3:16). And then that Sacrifice, that Substitute, was raised to life (Ro 8:34).
It is short, but it is significant. Mark mentioned that Jesus went out into the wilderness at the Spirit’s direction. “He was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan” (Mk 1:13). There he took on Satan. There he defeated our enemy. For us. In our place. Jesus did not give into Satan’s sinister suggestions as he tried to rob the world of its Redeemer. Not once (He 4:15). Jesus hands us that holiness so that we are right with God (2 Co 5:21). The Lord provides.
But there is more. As we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem again this Lenten season, we watch as Jesus climbs the cross, carrying our sin. God placed it on him. For us. In our place. So we sing with the psalmist David: “Be merciful to me, LORD. Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love” (Ps 6:2,4). And the Lord provides forgiveness. “It is God who justifies” (Ro 8:33). It is God who announces that we are “not guilty.” And now nothing and no one will ever be able to separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus (Ro 8:39). The Lord provides.
The angel of the LORD had an additional guarantee to give to Abraham who had been obedient (Ge 22:15). He declares it with authority and confirms it with an oath, swearing by himself because there is no one higher (Ge 22:16; He 6:13,14). “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, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Ge 22:17,18). The Lord hints at Abraham’s family would conquer Canaan one day. But more important, Isaac would keep the lineage of the Savior going. The Lord would provide One who would crush the devil’s head (Ge 3:15). We consider ourselves blessed because we are included in the great group of believers through faith.
A mother sees ahead of time what is necessary for dinner. She makes provisions. Or she provides. The Lord does too. Even bigger. He provides a testing of faith, but also a turning in faith. We rely on our Substitute who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). The Lord will provide. He will see to it. Always. We are sure and certain just like Abraham (He 11:1; Ro 4:11).
We read from Genesis 22:1-18:
1 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.”
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.
4 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.”
6 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!” “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.”
15 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.”
To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen (Ro 16:27).
February 18, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment