The Lord will Provide
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The Lord provides, YHWH Jireh, is found in Genesis 22:14 to name the place where Abraham brought Isaac as an offering to God. As we look to come to this event and look that the shadows and substance of the event, we first will look at the man Abraham. Abraham is referred to as the father of faith. However, a question for us, was Abraham a man of faith?
Abraham, a Man of Faith?
Abraham, a Man of Faith?
In Judaism Abraham is one of three men seen as pillars of faith, he is included with Moses and David. Abraham is considered the father of the faith. Jewish people and many Christians look to Abraham as he foundation of faith. But is he really a man of faith? Or did that develop over time?
Abraham does not Fully Obey
Abraham does not Fully Obey
When we think of Abraham, many think of his call to leave Ur to go to Canaan. But did Abraham really obey that call? God sends Abraham, formally Abram, to Canaan (Genesis 12:1-3) but Abraham did not go immediately.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
He went as far as Haran until his father died (Genesis 11:31).
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there.
The people of Haran worshipped the same gods as in Ur. So it seems that upon the Lord’s promise to Abraham, he left Ur with his father but did not go to the land of Canaan as God said. It could be that Abraham feared the views of his earthly father and left his country but did not fully commit to the heavenly Father’s plan until he was no longer worrying about what his father thought, because he was dead.
Let us not be too hard on Abraham. Many of us, even as fathers or grandfathers, still want the respect of our fathers. I had a friend once tell me that he alway had a hard time sharing the gospel with his father because as he said, “even though I am 52 years old, I am still a child in my father’s eyes.”
Not only does Abraham not fully obey the promise of God and fear men, specifically his father, but he also feared men as he avoids conflict.
Abraham Avoids Conflicts
Abraham Avoids Conflicts
When Abraham and his nephew Lot left Egypt there became strife between their herdsmen because they needed more space for their flocks. Abraham was the older member of the family and should have been the one to make the decision. However, avoiding conflict Abraham let Lot decide the future for both men. Lot’s decision reveals that he made a selfish decision, yet Abraham submitted himself to Lot’s decision.
Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
Abraham wanted to avoid the strife. Instead of having faith that God would provide for both of them, he tried to avoid the conflict. It seems that Abraham did not want to be the one to make the final decision. Now some will say that Abraham was honorable because he submitted himself to Lot and displayed humility and preference for others. After all, when Lot was captured, it was Abraham that led the the armed men to get Lot back (Genesis 14:14).
That could be, but with the rest of the way we see Abraham, we can just as easily see him as a weak man avoiding conflict and letting others make decisions for him. After all culturally it was dishonorable for Abraham to submit to his nephew. So, which is it? Well as we see more of his character then we might tend to see him as a conflict avoided, who fears men not God rather then not a man of faith. We find that he is a man that relies on himself rather then God.
Abraham Relies on Himself not God
Abraham Relies on Himself not God
When God promised Abraham that he would have a son from his own body (Genesis 15:4) he doubted the Lord’s words (Genesis 15:2-3). Even though Abraham “believed in the Lord and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) Abraham did not fully trust the Lord’s promise. He wanted a sign (Genesis 15:8). So, he relied on his own way to fulfill God’s promise.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
Even though God had made Abraham a promise and provided him a sign, still he did not trust God’s plan. God stated that Abraham would have a child of his own body (Genesis 15:4). However, after many years of trying and still no children, Abraham listened to the advice of his wife to take her slave, Hagar, as a wife and produce a child with her. They did not trust God’s plan but instead developed one of their own. This plan of theirs may have been something that they justified with themselves, for the son that Abraham had with Hagar was from his own body as promised. They knew God’s promise but got inpatient and came up with their own plan.
When we know what God’s will is but seek to fulfill God’s plan only partially then we are not being obedient to God. It displays a lack of faith to attempt to fulfill God’s will with man-made plans, even if we can make it seem spiritual. People do this often. This plan of theirs lead not to God’s pleasure but instead to conflict within their family (Genesis 16:5-6).
When God came to Abraham and clearly promises him a son by Sarah, he laughed (Genesis 17:17) instead of trusting God’s ability. He doubted that a 100 year old man and a 99 year old woman could bare a child. When God made Abraham a promises instead of relying on God, he begs God to accept Ishmael as the promise. Ismael was the plan that Abraham and Sarah hatched in their disobedience to God’s plan. They were impatience.
Now God is being very specific with Abraham that He is referring to Isaac, and Abraham still wants God to accept his man-made plan over God’s will. People often disobey the clear will of God for a half measure and when it produces conflict, instead of repentance, we, like Abraham, try to negation with God to accept their situation as His own.
We do see some faith from this promise. After God left Abraham, Abraham obeyed God’s word by getting circumcised (Genesis 17:23-27) as God commanded (Genesis 17:10-14). Think what that must have been like for a 99 year old man to get circumcised. This was no easy task. It would have been painful. He also made all the males in his household suffer the same pain. Even in the midst of so much of his disobedience and failure, here we see Abraham take a great step of faith.
But we see that Abraham still was a man that feared men over fearing God.
Abraham Prostitutes His Own Wife
Abraham Prostitutes His Own Wife
Abraham was married to his stepsister. He headed to Egypt due to a famine.
When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”
Abraham was desperate because of the famine, but he was also afraid for his life. He feared that the Egyptians would kill him to take his wife as their own. So, his solution was to have her tell something that was true but not the whole truth. He was still trying to fulfill the promise of God by relying on himself. That always leads to trouble when we do that.
Many people do this. They justify their sin by deceiving others with saying things that may be independently true but not the full story and that deception is still a lie. People do this to feel that they are still being spiritual but the purpose is deception, making the behavior sinful. However, in Abraham’s case it is worse.
Abraham is not only wanting to deceive the Egyptians but he expects that someone will want to take his wife to marry her and he seems ok with that.
And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
Abraham, the great man of faith, allowed his wife to be taken into the Pharaoh’s harem. What kind of husband allows his wife to be taken to not only sleep with another man but to marry another man? Does that sound like a man of faith?
And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
So Abraham got paid for Sarah to live with another man. However, God protected not only Abraham’s life but also Sarah’s. The Lord provided an escape for them.
But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Pharaoh said that he took her as his wife. We could assume that he consummated that relationship. Abraham allowed it to happen and received riches for it. What did Sarah think of her husband for allowing that? I do not think that she said he was a great man of faith. Do you?
Genesis 13:2 states that Abraham was very rich in livestock and in silver and gold. Where did he get those riches from? Genesis 12:16 tells us that he got some of it from Pharaoh for taking Sarah as a wife. We would like to think that this horrible experience taught Abraham a valuable lesson to trust God, who protected both of them, instead of trusting himself, who got them into this mess of prostituting his own wife.
One would think that Abraham learned from the previous failure from years earlier, but no. Abraham could have trusted God when He told Abraham, “as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age” (Genesis 15:15). The Lord promised Abraham a life till old age but for a second time Abraham feared men and not God. Abraham did not learn from his own mistakes nor did he trust in the Lord’s promise of him living to an old age.
From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
This time God protected his wife from marrying and consummating another relationship.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Even a Gentile king recognized that Abraham, who God calls His prophet, should have known better. This king seems to have more faith in God than the man everyone now refers to the father of faith. Abimelech expected that Abraham would have more faith in God.
Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
Abraham thought that Abimelech had no faith in God when it seems that he had more than Abraham. He goes further to justify his actions rather than acknowledge his sin.
Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”
Abraham claims that allowing his wife to marry and even sleep with another man is a “kindness”. Did he really think that though? Does that sound like a great man of faith?
How did he explain this to his son, Ishmael, who was at least a teenager (Genesis 17:25)? What was Abraham’s escape plan? How did Abraham plan to get his wife from the marriage of another man and leave the country. In both cases it was the king of the land that took Sarah for marriage. Would they have just given up their new wife to Abraham? That is doubtful.
It would be more likely that they would have him killed and remain married to Sarah. Once Abraham gave Sarah over to these men for marriage, there was no way out for him, apart from an act of God. Would Abraham have stood up and say that Sarah was his wife when all along he was unwilling to trust God before he even entered the country? I think God had to act to protect Sarah, because Abraham was not doing it. Abraham lacked the faith.
Abraham behaved much like the nation of Israel, he would later father. The nation of Israel also had a promise from God, that included being a great nation with of a psychical land they would possess and that they would be a blessing to the world. They made a prostitute of themselves going after other gods. Abraham was the shadow of failure. Israel was the substance.
Jeffery Rice said that Abraham would not be the kind of guy he would invite to speak at his conference. So why is Abraham called a man of faith?
Abraham, a Man of Faith!
Abraham, a Man of Faith!
It seems that the turning point for Abraham was after the birth of his son Isaac. At this point we must question how it could be that Abraham is called the father of faith? We can rejoice that God is not only the author of our faith but also He is the finisher of our faith (Philippians 1:6). Many of us are much like Abraham and we too can be glad that though in our younger years we lacked faith, there is still hope for us.
Circumcision
Circumcision
Part of God’s covenant with Abraham was that God required circumcision of all the males. The promise of the covenant is sealed in the act of circumcision.
And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
This covenant sign required great faith, especially for adults. I do not remember my circumcision, but I have seen several in my family. Even as an adult watching a circumcision is hard for a man. How much more difficult was it for adults to experience it? It would take great faith to suffer the experience of circumcision as a 99 year old man. However, it was not only Abraham that was circumcised.
And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Years later Abraham still held to the covenant sign by circumcision when he circumcised Isaac.
Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
The faith of Abraham is shared with all the people. Yes Abraham may have been able to command his son and slaves to be circumcised, but I think the inclusion of this in this passage is more than a command. I believe this is included because Abraham did not keep his faith to himself, but instead shared it with his son and all those in his family, including those slaves that he owned. I believe they submitted to that circumcision because they believed what Abraham shared.
Circumcision is the Shadow and Faith is the Substance
Circumcision is the Shadow and Faith is the Substance
As we talk about shadows and substance, we see that Paul understand that the circumcision of Abraham was the shadow but his faith is the substance.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
As we have seen the idea of an adult male getting circumcised is an act of great faith. And this circumcision is the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Paul recognizes that this act was the shadow, it was the sign of the substance, which is faith.
Having examined the life of Abraham, we can now start to see that he is beginning to trust the promises of God. Where maybe we where questioning how Abraham could be known as a man of faith, let alone the father of faith. Now God is not done with Abraham. Circumcision was an act of faith trusting the covenant promise of God. But now, God will test Abraham in probably the greatest test Abraham ever suffered.
The Offering of Isaac
The Offering of Isaac
It is one thing to have faith. But it is another thing to have that faith tested. This is what God does with Abraham. And yes God does test His own people. That does not mean that He tempts us (James 1:13), but He does test our faith.
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take 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.”
Isaac is the long awaited child of promise. God sets the test for Abraham. It seems that God wants Abraham to feel the full weight of this test. God says not only “take your son” but He adds “your only son”. Abraham has another son, Ishmael. God is stating that Isaac is Abraham’s only son. This is not to mean that Abraham does not have any other sons. It is to make the point that Isaac is the only child of promise.
Isaac is the long awaited child of promise. He is the one that Abraham waited for so long. Isaac is that miracle chid born only due to the supernatural work of God. He is the child when Abraham and Sarah were well beyond the years of baring a child.
Would you be willing to sacrifice your own child? How about a child that God, Himself, promised to you and you waited for many years, even decades, to have. A child not only of promise but also a miracle child that you could not have. Could you sacrifice that child?
What was Abraham thinking? Even by Abraham’s time he would know that God is against human sacrifice. Abraham had to know that God would not allow him to sacrifice his own son. The author of Hebrews makes it clear though that Abraham expected to have to kill his own son but that God would raise Isaac from the dead.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
So what did Abraham do? Scripture states that,
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
So many claim that Abraham rose early because he was so anxious to obey God. I think not. I think the reason that Abraham rose early is because he could not sleep all night. Remember this was a great test for him. How do you sleep when God testes you? Do you raise early to obey or do you toss and turn all night only to go get the test over with?
God was testing Abraham to see if he would trust God’s promise to create a great nation from Isaac or if he will trust himself, as was his past. Will he follow God’s will or will he be like so many times before and try to find a way to partially obey God while doing things his own way.
They traveled for three days to get to the spot that God wanted Abraham to go for the sacrifice (Genesis 22:4). Then just Abraham and Isaac went to the place for the alter (Genesis 22:5-6). Abraham had still not told Isaac what God called him to do. We know that because,
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Isaac was confused because he saw everything for a sacrifice except the offering itself. He still did not know that he was the offering. Isaac continued to walk trusting his father. Many think that Isaac could have been a young man, maybe a teenager. That would make Abraham over 110 years old. Isaac could have overpowered his father. But Isaac must have also trusted in the covenant God made with Abraham, because he must have let Abraham tie him up and place him on the wood as an offering.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
Isaac also had faith. He submitted himself to his father. Abraham must have had to explain to Isaac what God called him to do. Maybe he trusted what Abraham had said while they were still walking up the mountain.
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
They both trusted in God’s provision. They both grew in their belief in YWHW jireh, God provides. Do you believe that God will provide for all your needs? Many say yes but yet we, like Abraham, try to provide for ourselves by our own means.
Long ago I was homeless. I had no job, no place to live, and no means of income. Furthermore, I was a deacon at my church with several thousands of dollars in the Deacon’s Fund to provide for the needy. I was needy. However, I was also prideful. I was too prideful to let the pastors know my need to access that money. And yet, even when I had nothing and too prideful to ask, I never went without a meal for ore then a few days. God always provided and often in ways that I did not expect. That testing was also the great time of sanctification in my life.
This offering of Isaac and God’s provision was a marked time of sanctification for Abraham and Isaac. This is an event that neither of them ever forgot. It seared into their memory their trust in God. They surely remembered this event when they had times of doubt. They would remember the day they fully trusted that God could raise the dead. Do you have a something in your life to sear your faith in Christ in your mind for times of testing?
The Lord Provides
The Lord Provides
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Did God really not know what Abraham would do? God is omniscient. He knows everything. So, why would He tell Abraham that He “now knows” that Abraham fears God? Because God wanted to cement in Abraham’s mind the substance of faith not the shadow of the law. Abraham finally got the lesson and God wanted him to never forget it.
Is Isaac a Type of Christ?
Is Isaac a Type of Christ?
The question to be asked at a conference about shadows to substance, is Isaac a type of Christ? Is Isaac the shadow and Jesus the substance? I would have to say whole-heartedly … I do not know. I cannot say for Scripture does not say. There are many similarities between the offering of Isaac and Jesus. But Is Isaac a type of Christ?
When we discuss the area of church worship service there are some who hold to a principal call the regulative principal. This principal is the practice that we would not do anything in the worship service that is not directly instructed in Scripture. I practice the regulative principal, but not with the worship service. I practice the regulative principal when it come to interpreting Scripture. I do not say what Scripture does not clearly and directly state. Therefore, I say there are many similarities between the offer of Isaac and Jesus, that is all I can say. I cannot not go any further.
Conclusion
Conclusion
There is s danger as we talk about shadows and substance. As we examine the life of Abraham many focus on his circumcision. We have those that make baptism a major area of discussion. Many raise the law to a level beyond the Bible. I would say that some have even elevated their reformed theology to be the substance. These things are not the substance.
There is a problem when people make the shadow the substance and the substance the shadow. As Braden Patterson has illustrated, the shadow is like dating your spouse where marriage is the substance. We forget the shadow when we have the substance, because the substance is so much better.
In the Old Testament, circumcision is a shadow. In the New Testament, baptism maybe a shadow. The law is a shadow. The cross is the shadow but the substance in both the old and new covenants is our faith.
That one faith is found alone in Jesus Christ, by grace alone by faith alone. We have all sinned against an infinitely holy God, who is infinitely just. You and I deserve an eternal damnation, but God … but God! God made a way of escape. Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, came to earth to die a death we could never die to pay a debt we could never pay. Jesus died so that we could live (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are saved by the same faith that Abraham was saved by. The shadows do not save us. The substance does. The shadow is the cross but the substance in both the old and new covenants is our faith in Christ. One faith.
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
