In the past, I have joined thousands of others, preaching this chapter as a gospel message. But that is not my intention this afternoon. We are in the midst of a series of lessons entitled: “Practical Faith.” If you are like me, we need to learn to take what we know about our omnipotent God and move that knowledge from the intellectual realm into our day-to-day lives, trusting God to do the miraculous. Of course, God is going to have His will done; He is going to be victorious – because He is God. But we are not going to be victorious until our faith becomes more practical than theological. It is a test of my personal faith even to think that I can properly share with you what the Lord is beginning to put into my heart. But I am trusting the Lord, while trying to step out of the boat to walk on the water towards Him.
Let’s consider this chapter once again, but this time focusing on Abraham’s faith. It was tested, tangible, thrilling, tutorial and triumphant. Oh, that I could have ten percent of Abraham’s faith and even one percent of the blessings he received.
The Bible tells us that God took steps to TEST Abraham’s faith.
“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham…” The “things” referred to involved a covenant Abraham made with the heathen king, Abimelech. One of his responsibilities living in the land to which God had directed him, was to witness to unbelievers. There is a parallel between that man and ourselves. Why has the Lord left us in this world? To witness. In the midst of that up and down relationship, which was then on the up-swing, “God did tempt Abraham.”
Knowing that no prophesy of Scripture, or statement in the Scriptures, are of any private interpretation, Bible students understand that God never tempts people in the sense that Satan often does. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” – James 1:13. Like James’ Greek word, this Hebrew word is translated “proved” almost twice as often as “tempted.” We might say, “and it came to pass after these things, that God did test or prove Abraham…”
But know two things right here. First, God already knows the heart of Abraham even better than Abraham did himself. The Lord knows Abraham’s metal, whether it be gold, silver and precious stone, or wood, hay and stubble. The trial was not for God’s enlightenment, because God is never enlightened about anything. He never needs or acquires new information, because the Lord is omniscient. The test was for Abraham’s sake. But I will add that it was not for his sake alone.
Second: Abraham had already demonstrated remarkable faith when he left the city of Ur, and then Haran, taking his family south into an unknown land, promised by God, but at that point, not yet revealed. Abraham had already demonstrated faith greater than most of us have dreamed. He stuck out his neck and made his feet walk by faith in the will of God. He had already been tested by God, and as you already know, he passed. But here is another, more severe test. And in this we are reminded that we too will have our faith tested, and tested, and tested and tested again.
This was another TANGIBLE test of Abraham’s PRACTICAL faith.
Once again, I have to ask, how was it that God spoke to him? On this occasion it was not an overwhelming burden which the Holy Spirit placed in the depths of his heart. This was not about stepping out by faith, leaning on the Lord to eventually reveal a special place of service. (Well, maybe there was some of that, but there was more to it.) If I had to guess, I would say that the Second Person of the Godhead made a special visit to Beersheba where Abraham was then living. I say that because it was clearly pre-incarnate Christ who spoke to him later on at Moriah. Verse 11 – “The angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven,” and said, “for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing through hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from ME.” In some special, but not fully explained way, God spoke directly to His servant Abraham.
“And (the Lord) said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” There wasn’t room for any confusion in this test. Abraham was to take his teenage son, Isaac, and to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God. Over and over again, God said, “thy son,” “thine only son,” “the son you love more than anything else.” This could not be more practical, real and tangible than if it involved cutting off Abraham’s right hand. This test involved the most precious thing in that elderly saint’s life. This wasn’t about moving to a new city or switching jobs. This wasn’t about taking a cut in salary in order for God to meet the needs of someone else. “Abraham, are you willing to give up the love and joy of your old age for my sake and glory?” Instantly, the elderly father, said “yes,” and began to take steps to obey.
What motivated him? What lay underneath his willingness to obey this horrifying edict? Someone might say, he was moved by fear, as Noah had been. He might have been afraid of what God might have done to him if he had disobeyed. No, that was not it. Another foolish person might say, “Well, he lived in a different culture back then. The heathen were often sacrificing their children to various idol gods. Abraham was familiar with it, and so was ready to do what others were doing.” While some of that was true, that played no part in Abraham’s obedience. I am convinced that at the heart of all this – at Abraham’s heart – was a deep and abiding trust in the Lord. That man possessed a faith which is very rare. It was a faith which you and I need to possess.
At dawn on the morning after God’s commission, the father and the son began their preparations. It is interesting to me that they chopped the firewood for the sacrifice. Abraham prepared for the offering. Someone else might have said, “I’ll look for firewood on site,” hoping there might not have been any. If God didn’t provide the wood then the sacrifice couldn’t be completed, and Abraham would have been off the hook. Abraham could have “put out the fleece,” so to speak, by not taking his own wood. But that man had an extraordinary trust in God. Testing God was not his response to the test of God.
I would guess that Sarah knew nothing about the purpose of the journey. She may have been thinking about an upcoming break from the demands of her family – a sort of vacation. She may have rejoiced that her son and her husband would have some father/son bonding time. They bonded all right, but in a way she never imagined.
For three days they traveled together. Depending on the route the journey was from 50 to 65 miles. Beersheba was one of the southern most communities in the Promised Land. They were to go from the edge of the Gaza desert to the site of the future city of Jerusalem. They had no audio books to listen to, and no sermonaudio.com. They were not reading Isaiah 53 like the Ethiopian Eunuch. Undoubtedly they talked. They talked about many things, and the two servants were probably included. During that time – for fifty or sixty hours – Abraham’s heart may have been breaking, knowing what he was to do. I say, it “may” have been breaking, because permeating the entire trip was his faith in the Lord.
Abraham’s faith in all this is THRILLING to watch.
Again, I point to his immediate obedience. Time and time again, as I read through God’s Word, I see examples of instant obedience or immediate examples of faith. I have also read of it in the biographies of some of God’s more recent, great servants. What prompts that kind of response? In this case it was faith. Do you remember our modified version of Webster’s definition of faith? We said that it is: “the assent of the heart to the truth of what God has declared, resting on His authority and veracity, without the necessity of any other corroborating evidence.” Based on his faith, Abraham set off to do what the Lord had commanded, trusting the Lord for the outcome. Eventually, Isaac asked his question: “Behold the fire & wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And then we hear faith’s famous answer: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
What was Abraham thinking would happen? Scholars have been debating that for several millennia. Was he thinking that the Lord would supply a substitute for Isaac, exactly as He did? Hmmm. Did he think Isaac would rebel and escape? I doubt that. Did he think that God would stop him at the last minute? That is a possibility. Was there anything else in his mind? Who knows?
Let me take you back to God’s original call to this man. Genesis 12:2 – “I will make of thee a great nation… in thee shall all the earth be blessed.” That promise was made more than twenty-five years earlier, & Abraham is now well over a century old. His opportunities to become a great nation are somewhat limited, unless God intended to use Isaac. In Genesis 13:14 Jehovah reiterated His pledge – “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” From where will this seed come if not through Isaac? In chapter 15 and before Isaac’s birth, Abraham may have been thinking that his favorite servant, Eliezer, might fulfill God’s plan, but he was told that was not the case. Then even after the birth of Ishmael and before Isaac, in Genesis 17, the Lord let it be known that Sarah’s own son would be the fulfillment of God’s promise, not the son of Hagar. And then at the ages of ninety and a hundred, God gave to Sarah and Abraham the promised son, Isaac, filling them both with hope, joy and laughter. And now God tells Abraham to kill the one who he has been thinking would be his heir to the promises.
When Abraham raised the knife, holding it under his son’s chin, I believe that he expected a divine miracle. This was a test of the man’s faith, and that faith trusted the wisdom, the will, and the power of God. Either the Lord would somehow spare Isaac’s life, or perhaps even more spectacularly, He would restore that life once it was gone. Since you and I have the end of the story already in our minds, we know that God did supply a substitute, but is that what Abraham thought would happen?
Not then knowing the details, I am sure Abraham had faith to believe that God would somehow keep His promise. Brethren, that is the kind of country in which you and I are to abide. God always keeps His Word. Titus 1:2 – God cannot lie, and therefore He must keep His promises. David found himself in a difficult situation which was not dissimilar to Abraham’s test. In II Samuel 7:28 David expressed his faith in Jehovah. “And now, O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, and it may continue for ever before the; for thou, O Lord God has spoken it; and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.” I think the same sort of faith-filled prayer went through the heart of Isaac’s father, standing at the top of the mountain where David eventually prepared his son to build a temple unto the Lord.
The site became known as “Jehovah-jireh” – “the Lord will provide.” This is the kind of place where many of God’s trials end up. Our faith is sometimes tested to teach us that God will provide. We also learn that until we step out of the boat onto the water, the Lord has no need to provide. Jehovah is God, always and forever, but He is Jehovah-jireh only to those who step out by faith.
What does the phrase mean in verse 14: “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen?” I think that it must refer to the mountain where all of this took place. Verse 2 – God said, “Take now thy son… and get thee into the land of Morah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” I think that verse 14 is pointing to site where this sacrifice was made and also to where the greatest of all sacrifices will take place – about two thousand years later. Later, this Mount Moriah became the site for Solomon’s Temple. II Chronicles 3:1 – “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah.” And not too far away was Calvary, where the substitute for Isaac gave up His life to save him and us. God didn’t want Abraham’s sacrifice to be made just anywhere. It was to be made where the Son of God gave His life a ransom for many. It was to be made at the place where the Lord had stashed away a ram for the sacrifice.
Abraham’s faith provided a TUTORIAL for the faith of Isaac.
I stand amazed at the behavior of that young man. “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”
I am convinced that Isaac was not some little child. He probably walked all of the way from his home to Mount Moriah. He was not six or eight years old. He was old enough to hold an intelligent conversation with his father about sacrifices and obedience. Then he carried a load of firewood up a slope which may have been too difficult for the ass to climb. He was big enough to pummel his elderly father, or to push him away and run off, if he chose to do so. But he didn’t try to thwart his father’s wishes once they became clear. In other words, he was as ready to give his life, as the father was ready to sacrifice his son.
Why then did Abraham bind the lad? For that I don’t have a solid explanation. There was no reason to tie up the voluntary sacrifice. Some say that it was simply customary to bind what was to be offered. I’m not so sure there was custom. A better explanation, but perhaps a bit of a stretch, is to point to the Saviour who also was bound. Was it at the command of the Lord that Isaac was bound? And no, Abraham didn’t give his son something soothing to smoke, turning him into a placid little lamb. I believe that it had become Isaac’s desire to be the sacrifice his father needed to make.
How was that possible? Again, it is only my opinion, but I think that the faith of Abraham had become the faith of Isaac. The confidence and love which the father had in God, produced its own child in the child of Abraham. During the trip north, and probably long before, Isaac had been given God’s gift of the same kind of faith as his father. There was a consensus between the father and the son about what was to be done.
The kind of faith which moves mountains and brings down rain from cloudless skies is a pregnant faith. By that I mean that doesn’t stand alone for very long; it produces faith in others. Seeing and even experiencing the faith of his father, Isaac may have become excited about the possibility of doing something which had never been done before. He was prepared to die, possibly looking into the face of his Saviour and then expecting to return to his father, perhaps with the privilege to talk about the Lord and the things he experienced. He didn’t have Paul’s testimony of seeing the other side and then returning with a thorn in the flesh, but he was ready for whatever the Lord had for him. Isaac’s faith may have been as great and spectacular as Abraham’s.
But is it my faith? Our faith? It may be our prayer, but have we touched even the hem of this garment of faith? Do I have the kind of faith which cannot be hidden; the kind of faith which duplicates itself in others? Do I have the faith which moves mountains and raises the spiritually dead? Why not? Has the power of God some how run short in these last days?
As we know Abraham’s was a TRIUMPHANT faith.
“ The angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 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.”
I suppose we might try to describe “triumphant faith” in different ways, but consider this: Abraham submitted himself to the Lord, obeying Him in every detail, and at the same time he received the desire of his heart – the return of his son. That is victory. That is what it is to be triumphant. Triumphant faith risks everything which the Lord asks it to risk, and because it is true faith, it, receives blessings beyond compare. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7 – “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” but I’m pretty sure the Lord would add, “according to your faith be it unto you.” Triumphant faith attempts great things for God, because it has great expectations in God.
And triumphant faith replicates itself in the faith of others. Can you imagine what the trip home was like for those two – for all four of those men? It is reasonable to assume that one of the servants waiting at the bottom of the mountain was Eliazer, the man whose faith we will examine in our next lesson.
Triumphant faith is the faith which glorifies God in the precise way that the Lord intended. Because Abraham obeyed and exerted his faith, we have been given a beautiful and power prophesy of our salvation in Christ. But if he had not obeyed, the illustration would have been lost. In this sacrifice, we are reminded that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because Abraham trusted and obeyed God we see the Ram of God which taketh away the sin of the believer. We see the doctrines of substitution and of the blood atonement. Triumphant faith results in the glory of God. Triumphant faith is often at the heart of the salvation of sinners.
Oh, that we had more of this kind of faith.