When God Asks For Too Much
Notes
Transcript
How strong is your faith when God asks for too much?
When you face a situation that is more than anyone could possibly bear?
And why would God allow such a circumstance to happen in the first place?
Abraham is instructed to sacrifice his own son. My initial response as a father is that such a command pushes the limits of faith - but then again, does true faith have limits?
Abraham’s test is not the only hard choice found in the Bible. Job loses everything in a day - and has a choice, will he trust God or reject Him. Queen Esther must choose to put aside her comfort, her privilege, her position, and her very life, to go before the king, reveal her identity as a Jew, and callout the evil actions of the king’s trusted right hand man. A young teenage Mary must choose whether or not to submit to God’s will, knowing to do so would likely ostracize her from her family and friends. Joseph finds out that Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant with child and must decide - take on the dishonor and shame, proceed with the marriage and raise this child as his own, or quietly leave?
Have you ever faced such a moment in your life? When you have had to face something unfair, hard, ugly, painful - and had to choose how you will move forward. The situations in life when you suddenly feel alone, when you lay awake at night running through scenarios, when the weight of it all is too much to bear?
I’m talking about those times when well-meaning church friends try to encourage you by saying things like “God never gives us more than we can handle?”
Actually, God does give us more than we can handle on our own. The often stated but misapplied passage that is being referenced has to do with temptation and is found in 1 Cor 10:13
The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, he will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it.
Abraham wasn’t being tempted when God instructed him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Job wasn’t being tempted when God permitted Satan to strike Job with tragedy upon tragedy - losing his sons and daughters and all his wealth in a single day.
They were being tested. Don’t get me wrong, temptations can be used to test our faith - but this is not what we find in this passage today.
What we find is God asking Abraham to be obedient even when the command goes against every fiber of his being.
What would Abraham do when God ask for too much?
Problems arise for us when we contemplate such a passage. God instructing Abraham to sacrifice his only son is not the kind of passage that we can easily explain away and feel good about.
It deals with the very nature of faith and how God interacts with us. In Genesis, we find God setting Abraham apart and making promises to him. The first part of the promise is in Genesis 12:1-3
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.”
God then shows Abraham the land of the promise...
Genesis 13:15 (ESV)
for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
In chapter 17, God expands on his promise and declares he shall make Abraham the father of the multitude of nations and that he and Sarah will have a son - even though Abraham was over 100 years old and Sarah was in her 90’s. Both of them laughed when they heard this news which is why they named the son of the promise Isaac - which means “he laughs.”
God is revealed to us in the Bible as one who makes and keeps His promises.
And he is also revealed to be a God who will do what He will do - and sometimes, what He does it hard for us to understand and fathom.
Who has known the mind of the Lord or been able to give him advice? Whom did he ask for help? Who taught him the right way? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way to understanding?
The answer, of course, is no one. God is God - there is no one like him. Our finite minds cannot comprehend the infinite greatness of God, and sometimes God gives commands that, from our perspective, are dark.
Walter Bruggemann, in his commentary on this passage from Genesis, frames it this way...
Genesis The Interplay of Abraham and God
The problem of this narrative is to hold together and embrace both the dark command of God and his high promise.
He is saying as readers of this story, we have to find a way to embrace God instructing Abraham to kill Isaac with God’s promise to bring forth a multitude of descendants from Isaac.
Bruggemann continues by stating that...
Genesis The Interplay of Abraham and God
Faith is the readiness to answer to this strange contradiction in God.
Simply put, when God ask for too much, our willingness to step out in obedience based not on our feelings, but on what we also know of his promises and his goodness - that is the space where our faith is revealed and refined.
Again, I turn to Bruggemann who asks a great question...
Genesis The Interplay of Abraham and God
In what ways are we prepared for the God of Job and Abraham who gives and takes away, who promises but also commands and tests?
This is where we are weighed and measured. When hard situations arise - does our response reflect a deep abiding trust in God or does it reveal a heart divided?
I do not know the tests that all of you have faced in your lives - but for those who have shared their stories with me, your faithful response in difficult situations has served as an encouragement to me and to others. As we mature in our faith, our actions are to reflect the greatness and goodness of God, and so to witness someone come out of a difficult, hard, painful experience with a deeper, unshakable faith - that inspires others to press on through. It makes the promises of God real.
Sometimes, I dare say, oftentimes, we may look back and say, I did not handle that test very well. I am not satisfied with how I responded, and I feel that I let God down. Yet even in those situations, our acknowledgment of our own weakness and our need for God’s mercy - when our hearts desire is to become stronger - that can also encourage others not to give up.
The last week and a half has been a test for Krista and I. To be told to pack up and move by the end of the month with no place to go was certainly a test. However, we have come to know God’s goodness and provision in our lives. We know his promises, that he will never leave us or forsake us. We know that He makes a way where there is no way. We began packing while we were still searching - yet not fretting because we knew the One who was in control. We also knew that we were not alone. So many of you blessed us with your words of encouragement, your prayers, your actions. I’m glad to say we are moved in and thankful for our new temporary residence. I hope that through this test we reflected His glory.
God tests are not just arbitrary actions for his amusement. He is identifying who really belongs to him. Who is serious about their faith and who has decided to allow God to be fully God of their lives.
Abraham’s response to this test was the outcome of a deeply developed relationship with the Lord. This was the culmination of faith development - starting way back when God called him to leave his home and go to the place the Lord would show him. He trusted God and obeyed. There were also tests along the way that he failed and had to learn from. Sleeping with Hagar, his wife’s maidservant, in order to help God out with his promise of a son, was one such failed test. Yet even in his failures, Abraham learned to trust in God’s power, his goodness, his provision and his promises.
So when the command came, when God says to him ...
Genesis 22:2 (ESV)
“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.”
Abraham is making a decision based not only on what he has heard in the moment, but what he deeply knows. He knows that God’s promises will come true. He knows that God is powerful enough to bring life out of a barren womb. He knows that God is going to bring many descendants out of his lineage. He knows that God will find a way to bring life out of death. Most importantly, he knows that God is God and he is not.
We can hear this unshakable faith in his answer to Isaac.
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?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
God is merciful. Abraham’s raised hand is stayed, his son will live, and a ram is provided as a substitute. Abraham, the father of our faith, passes the test.
God provides. Abraham builds an altar, offers his burnt offering, and names the place “The Lord will provide” - Yahweh Yireh. Only God, the source of life, could provide what was needed and just the right time.
And here we see the gospel in this story. For all the way back in Genesis, we find God giving us a picture of what it will take to provide salvation for us all.
Our heavenly Father will have to give up his only begotten Son. God will ask for too much, and it will cause great distress to Jesus at the Mount of Olives - not far from where Abraham bound Isaac.
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
At the crucifixion and resurrection, God fulfills his promise - all the families of the earth will be blessed by the One would come from Abraham’s line. God provides the unblemished lamb for the sacrifice, His own Son. And God brings life out of death - raising Jesus from the grave and seating Him at His right hand in the position of all power and authority.
And God will fulfill His promise of salvation for all who trust in the Lord when Jesus returns.
Until that day comes, you are called to trust and obey. Show the world who is God of your life.
Trust in his goodness and in his promises.
God is good, all the time.
and All the time, God is good.
Amen.