WEEKEND Edition 24/25 July 2021 “A God Test”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends, welcome to the WEEKEND, and I hope it’s a good one for you, wherever you are around the world.

When you hear the word “TEST”, what comes to your mind? What emotions well up in your soul? A medical test showing evidence of a serious illness / a test seeking a license / a test requiring a high grade to pass along to the next level of your development …so many different types of tests. But have you ever felt God was testing you? We’re traveling with Abraham and Genesis 22:1 says “Some time later God tested Abraham.” We don’t know exactly how much time ‘some time later’ represents, but we presume about 10 years or so.

You’ll recall Sarah had miraculously given birth to Isaac when she was 90 and Abraham was 100! Yesterday we worked through the very difficult challenge Abraham faced of having to send away Hagar, the Egyptian maidservant of Sarah, and her son Ishmael. Oh how painful that must have been for Abraham! Ishmael was his firstborn son and he’d waited so long for a son. Ishmael was 14 when Isaac was born so by the time Ishmael and his mother left, he was likely 18 or so…a young man, able to work hard and care for his mother. As Genesis 22 opens, that painful goodbye was dimmed by about 10 years of time and the indescribable joy Abraham and Sarah must have had each day with their miracle son Isaac. Oh there was so much to tell Isaac of God and His promises to them of descendants and land. So many experiences to describe to Isaac which they’d had since they left Ur probably more than 40 years ago, as they followed God and were growing to know God in their strong trust relationship with God.

I wonder if these powerful words from Psalm 78 summarize what was happening in those years: “What we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us; we will not hide them from the children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power and the wonders He has done… so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God…” (Ps. 78:1-7) I simply have to ask you my friends… all of you, thousands of you: do these words describe the spiritual heritage that you have? Do they describe the spiritual legacy you have been building as you nurture your children and grandchildren with spiritual wisdom gained through your own life journey?

I presume Abraham and Sarah were thinking… ‘this is what we’ve been waiting for all our lives. For the rest of our lives we’ll raise Isaac to understand his key role in God’s great promises, then when the time is right, we’ll find him a good wife and watch them bring us grandchildren and continue God’s great covenant promises. These are our retirement years, let’s enjoy them.’ But what they didn’t know, is what all of us don’t know… none of us can predict the future! God had yet many things He wanted to teach Sarah and Abraham and now Isaac, as God developed His great plan to have a people for Himself who would follow Him and through whom God could impact the world. Therefore, in God’s great purpose, the time had come for Abraham, Sarah and Isaac to each face the greatest faith test of their lives.

We don’t know exactly how it happened, but one day Abraham had an encounter with God that would change his life and his family forever! The record says: “God said to Abraham, ‘Abraham!’ He replied, ‘Here I am’. 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.” (Gen. 22:2) Was it a vision, a dream, an audible voice? We don’t know. What we do know is that Abraham knew exactly what was happening here. God had called Abraham by name, there was no mistake. Reminds me of what God spoke to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3. Abraham’s response, ‘here I am’! That tells me Abraham had developed a keen ear to discern when God was speaking to him, and he’d also learned his very best posture of response to God was ‘here I am’! It means: ‘‘I hear you speaking my name and I am listening attentively’. It also means ‘I trust you God, I am available to you God, I will do whatever you instruct me to do.’ May I ask, is that the relationship you and God have developed?

But what Abraham heard God say was confusing and appeared to contradict everything he knew about God. God was right… Isaac was Abraham’s only remaining son, since God had told him to send Ishmael away! God was right… Abraham loved Isaac with the deepest love he could imagine anyone could have for another person. But what God was instructing Abraham to do was so far outside the realms of logic or common sense or even God honoring behavior? Abraham knew that human family sacrifice was something done in extreme cases among some of the peoples who lived in that part of the world, but never had Abraham considered that sacrificing one of his family members would in any way honor the Almighty, Holy God he was learning to know. The record is silent in what Abraham did as he received this message from God. What do you think he did? I think he likely walked out into an open area and either fell down on his face or stood looking up into the sky and cried out to God, trying to understand, even just a little. Did Abraham tell Sarah what God had said to him? We don’t know.

The very next thing the record says is this: “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…” (Gen. 22:3) Oh my, did you notice Abraham got up very early, the very next morning… no procrastination, he had heard God clearly. Do you notice Abraham saddled his own donkey and cut his own firewood. Both of those are the work of servants, but Abraham did it himself. Why? I think everything he did was an act of intentional obedience, submission to God’s instructions, even though those instructions made no sense, totally contradicting the covenant promise God had given him. As they walked, what do you suppose they all talked about? What had Abraham said to Sarah about what he was doing that morning, where they were going, how long he’d be gone?

I think it wise that we walk along with Abraham, Isaac and the two servants… in silence and deep reflection. Hebrews 11 gives us a glimpse into what Abraham was contemplating as he walked along, with Isaac his miracle son at his side. “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises [of God] 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…” (Hebrews 11:17-19) We’ve all had the experience of rolling an action over in our minds before we actually do it. We look at it from every vantage point, trying to understand fully what we are about to do and why. That’s what Abraham was doing as he walked, with Isaac at his side. I’m sure Abraham was silently talking to God every step of the way, begging God to somehow help him make sense of this. But as far as we know heaven was silent. Abraham was being tested by God. How well did he know God? How much did he trust God? How far would he go in obedience to God’s instructions?

Finally, the record says: “On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 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.” (Gen. 22:3-5) Now what does that tell you about the condition of Abraham’s heart? For three days he’s been walking and thinking and praying… and finally he makes a very powerful statement “stay here while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” That’s why the Hebrews author says ‘…Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead…” If God was to be trusted in all things, then God would have to somehow lead Abraham through this ‘valley of the shadow of death’, and somehow he and Isaac would return from that sacrifice mountain alive, healthy and ready to continue living the covenant promise with God. Somehow…

Let’s walk slowly with them this weekend, leaving the two servants and the donkey behind, heading for that mountain over there. It’s called Moriah. From Abraham’s perspective it’s a mountain of death. From God’s perspective, it’s a mountain of new life. I’ll leave you with this one thought… on that very hill, nearly 2000 years later, Jesus walked up that hill, carrying His own cross, in full obedience to God the Father, ready to give His life as an atonement sacrifice for the sins of humanity!

Here’s a song to help you ponder these two incredible scenes… and simply ask yourself… what do you believe this weekend about Jesus and what HE accomplished on that hill called Golgotha? And what Abraham should do as he walks toward that hill?

Today’s Scripture is Genesis 22:1-5.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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