What God Wants Most

INTRODUCTION:

If you have your Bibles you can open them to Genesis 22 as we examine one of the greatest chapters in the Bible on this Mother’s Day.

Over the last month or so we’ve looked at how the resurrection of Jesus results in practical changes in the way we live our life.

As we return back to Genesis I want to tie in where we’ve been with where we’re going.

It’s tempting to think that what God wants most from us is to live a moral life that is pleasing to him. And certainly there are commands to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling.

But that isn’t what God wants most.

The Bible never says without moral effort it’s impossible to please God.

It’s not will-power.

It’s not money.

It’s not accomplishing great things.

It’s the five letter Word that’s at the center of the life of Abraham who we’ve been studying.

The thing God wants more than anything else is FAITH.

Without faith it’s impossible to please God. Hebrews 11:6 “…since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

The thing God wants most is genuine faith, fully surrendered, visibly expressed through courageous action.

Today’s passage in Genesis 22 is Abraham’s ultimate test of faith.

In it, God asks Abraham to do something that was unthinkable, irrational and frankly impossible for any parent that loves their child.

And yet, God requires it of him anyway.

WHY did God require such a tremendous sacrifice?

WHAT was God trying to show Abraham through this request?

These are all questions that I want to answer from our passage today.

And it’s a most relevant text for this Mothers Day because a life of faith is one of the greatest gifts that any mother can give to their child. .

Setting The Table

For those of you who are just now joining us, let me set the table for where we’ve been.

We’ve been working through the book of Genesis since January of last year. It’s been a fascinating journey thus far.

Our most recent exploration has been the life of Abraham as told from Genesis 12-22.

God originally called Abraham out of pagan idolatry and away from his family and the life he had always known.

God asks Abraham to go to the place that he would show him and if he did he would reward him (with land & a lineage.)

Abraham responds and his life of faith is like a roller coaster of ups and downs, triumphs and failures.

Through each trial and test God establishes and confirms his promise.

In Genesis 22 Abraham has been living in God’s promised land for for close to 30 years with his promised child Isaac.

It’s an extended season of blessing and plenty for Abraham, Sarah, Issac and their household.

We pick up our story in Genesis 22:1

Genesis 22:1 CSB

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

The phrase “after these things” is important.

One might assume from reading the story that the birth of the promised child would’ve been the end of Abraham’s character arch.

It’s a nice clean conclusion. Abraham wrestles with God, grows as a man, overcomes his demons and learns to trust and follow the Lord.

As a result, the Lord finally rewards Abraham with his promised child and does so in such a way that it’s clear to everyone it was from the Lord.

Out of barrenness God brings the miracle of new life. Out of brokenness he brings renewal and new hope.

It’s after these these things that God tested Abraham again.

Never Outgrow Proving Faith

Genuine faith in the life of a believer is an ongoing process. The calling of God isn’t a “one and done.”

We’re always striving never arriving until the day calls us home.

We never outgrow the opportunity to prove the genuineness of our faith

It doesn’t matter your age or your spiritual maturity or your season in life.

Until God brings you home he brings tests to your faith.

It’s important that we distinguish between testing and temptation.

James warns Christians against saying that God is “tempting” you because God is holy. He can’t be tempted by evil nor will He ever tempt someone with it. (James 1:13)

So even though the words are similar and sometimes used interchangeably, the concdepts are distinct.

A test is an invitation to elevate our faith and receive a reward.

Temptation is an invitation to descend into sin and experience its consequence.

We don’t get to choose when God sends a test and we don’t get to choose what God decides to test.

The only choice we have is how we respond to the test.

Read The Text

Abraham’s test was aimed at his parental love for Isaac.

What follows in Genesis 22 is horrific, difficult to reconcile, beautiful, and theologically profound all at the same time.

Genesis 22:2–14 CSB

2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

MARKS OF GENUINE FAITH

One of the things you look for when studying the Scripture is the repetition of certain words.

In this passage the word that gets repeated again and again is the word “son.”

It’s used 11 times.

The other phrase that gets repeated over and over is the phrase “God will provide.”

This passage isn’t just about the proving of Abraham’s faith. It’s also about the sacrifice of a promised Son and God’s provision to redeem him from death.

We’re going to examine both angles. We’ll begin by examining the marks of genuine faith.

Let me walk us back through this passage and draw out some principles.

Where Testing Happens

I think we can all agree that God’s testing of Abraham presented him with an impossible choice. Can you imagine the horror?

Notice how the Lord phrases his request Gen 22:2

Genesis 22:2 CSB

2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Take your son.

Your only son, Isaac.

Whom you love.

Offer him as a burnt offering on the mountain I will tell you about.

Every phrase would’ve been a punch to the gut. This was Isaac, the long awaited promised child between him and Sarah.

He did have another child, Ishmael, but Abraham had sent him away with his mother Hagar at the Lord’s command.

Isaac would’ve been between his late teens or mid 30’s.

Abraham and Sarah waited for God to keep his promise about their son for 25 years. 25 years they waited on the Lord and their son was finally born.

Now, after a few decades of loving and enjoying this child of promise the Lord asks Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice.

Genuine faith is often tested at our place of greatest affection.

Abraham’s test was aimed at his parental love for Isaac. You can imagine how much his would’ve loved his son.

For many parents, the greatest testing of your faith has linked with the life of one of your children.

For others, it might not be your children but it is the person or thing you loved the most. The thing on which your heart had become fully set.

It is often at that place that the Lord will bring his greatest test. A test to determine, “Do you love the gifts more than the giver of those gifts.”

Enjoyed Through Surrender

One of the reasons I think God will test us at the place of our greatest affection is because he wants to determine whether He has our heart or that other person or thing has our heart.

This is why Jesus said you can’t serve two masters. You’ll love one and hate the other and be devoted to one and despise the other - you can’t serve God and money.

For some people money is their place of greatest affection.

For others it’s a parent or a child.

For others it’s a spouse or romantic partner.

For others it’s themselves or some inflated idea of how they should be seen.

As Jesus said in Matthew 10:37, “the one who loves a father/mother/son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me…”

The Lord will not tolerate any competitors for the priority of your heart.

That’s why the greatest testing of our faith coincides with the greatest affections in our heart.

The Lord is seeking to answer whether our faith is genuine.

Which leads us to the first mark of genuine faith from this passage.

Genuine faith only indwells a heart that is fully surrendered to God.

Abraham’s response to God’s request reveals the condition of his heart.

Expressed Through Action

What’s amazing is how Abraham responds to the test. Gen 22:3-4

Genesis 22:3–4 CSB

3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

The very next day Abraham acts on this command from the Lord.

Would you have been able to do that?

Perhaps this was because Abraham was very mature in his faith. He had already had so many “faith lessons” that perhaps he was just confident in the Lord no matter the difficulty of the ask.

We’re not let in on what Abraham was thinking but his response was immediate and thorough.

Which is another mark of genuine faith.

Genuine faith is expressed through action.

Faith isn’t about what you know but what you do with what you know.

Abraham doesn’t delay. He doesn’t argue or try and change the terms of the deal.

He gets up early and he takes exactly what he needs to do exactly what God had asked him to do.

Not only that, he heads in exactly in the direction that God had told him to go. (The Land of Moriah - about 50 miles)

Then he waited for the Lord to show him to exact mountain he was supposed to select. (Mount Moriah)

How many of us would’ve been tempted to turn back after day 1? What about day 2? What about on day 3 when it got real and God said, “that’s the mountain I want you to choose.”

I honestly don’t know that I could’ve done it. Could you imagine the conversations they would’ve had? The sleepless nights, the thoughts and memories running through Abraham’s head. The tension Isaac must’ve felt. The awkward atmosphere for the other guys?

Despite it all, Abraham perseveres. Why? Because faith without works is dead.

That’s how James the brother of Jesus interpreted this episode in the life of Abraham.

James 2:21–22 CSB

21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,

You can tell me what you believe but what you say isn’t nearly as telling as what you do.

What you do with your life tells me what you believe in your heart.

Christianity isn’t about lip service it’s about lifestyle.

The genuineness of our faith is proven through the actions of our life.

Enabled by Confidence

But how was Abraham able to do that? How did he persevere through all 50 miles of that journey and actually walk up the mountain and commit to violence against his son?

When we get to verse five the curtain is pulled back as to WHY Abraham was so quick to follow the Lord and so detailed in his obedience to the Lord. Gen 22:5

Genesis 22:5 CSB

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

It’s easy to miss this in the English but if you read it in the Hebrew it slaps you in the face.

Abraham’s instruction to his ‘young men’ say “the boy and I will go over there to worship, then WE’LL come back to you.”

The verb “come back” is not a first person singular verb. It’s a first person PLURAL.

Abraham knew God wanted him to offer his one and only son as a burnt offering before the Lord.

That means Isaac would’ve had to have been killed, chopped up into pieces and burnt into ash.

But even though all that is true. Somehow, Abraham also knew that Isaac was going to come back from the dead and return with Abraham after they had worshipped before the Lord.

The New Testament book of Hebrews sheds light on Abraham’s thinking. Hebrews 11:17-19

Hebrews 11:17–19 CSB

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.

Genuine faith is enabled by confidence in the faithfulness of God.

What an amazing display of faith!

Faith isn’t so much about “what you know” or “how much you know” but “how deeply” you believe it.

Do you believe God enough to entrust him with the life and welfare of your children?

Do you believe God enough to trust him with the unanswered questions of your life?

Abraham doesn’t have the wealth of knowledge we have about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

He doesn’t have the rich historical evidence and thousands of years of Christian history to beef up his confidence in God.

All he had was a life marked by God’s faithfulness and provision time and time again.

So he deduced, if God wants me to offer up this promised Son who HE GAVE ME to make good on HIS COVENANT PROMISE then he will make a way for my son to come back to life and make good on that promise.

Parental Application

I know some of you moms here today have some real anxiety about what’s going on in the life of some of your children.

Some of them are physically unwell. They’re sick and you don’t know how to help them.

Some of them are spiritually unwell. Playing the prodigal. It’s strained your relationship.

Some of them are mentally unwell. Anxiety and mental health issues are on the rise.

The question for us posed by the genuine faith of Abraham is will we entrust our children to the same God we’ve entrusted ourselves?

Even when we don’t know the answers. Even when we can’t see the way. Will we live as if, “the boy and I will return to you after we’ve gone to worship.”

Extends to the Next Generation

Genuine faith indwells a heart that’s fully surrendered.

Genuine faith is expressed through courageous actions.

Genuine faith is enabled by confidence in God’s faithfulness.

In verse 6 we see something else about the genuine faith of Abraham.

Genesis 22:6–9 CSB

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

This is the only place in the book of Genesis where we see a conversation between Abraham and Isaac. It’s an instructive conversation.

I wonder how and when Abraham expressed to Isaac the real intention behind their journey. It had to have happened sometime between verses 8-9.

The reason I say that is because Isaac doesn’t fight his father when being bound to the altar.

Abraham is 100 years old. Isaac is somewhere between 18 and 35. I think he could’ve over powered his Father. (a strong wind could take you out at 100yrs)

But he doesn’t do that. Whether it was on this journey or in the many years leading up to this moment, Abraham had transferred his genuine faith in the Lord to the heart of his son, Isaac.

Genuine faith extends to the heart of the next generation.

It’s not true that every child comes to possess the genuine faith of their father or mother. Many parents are here today that genuinely love Jesus and their children do not.

But for every one of those parents I know of, it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

When you truly come to believe the Gospel it never stays private. Your faith becomes multiplied into the lives and hearts of others around you.

Not only does Isaac enjoy the same confidence in God as his Father Abraham. After this event he honors his Father’s wishes to marry a woman who also worshipped the Lord and not a pagan wife as would’ve be easier and more customary.

Endures to the End

Finally we see in verse 10 the last mark of Genuine faith. Gen 22:10-12

Genesis 22:10–12 CSB

10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”

Genuine faith endures to the very end.

I wonder what went through the mind of Abraham as he raised that knife.

Whatever it was, there was resoluteness that communicated to the Lord that Isaac’s life was truly on the altar.

Now I know you fear God since you have not withheld your only son from me.

What this show us is that God never really wanted the life of Abraham’s son. He wanted the fullness of Abraham’s heart.

He wanted the heart of Isaac and the heart of Abraham to fully trust in the Lord.

And that’s why the Lord often allows testing to happen in our life as well. It’s not punish us or to hurt us.

It’s to woo us back into a place of communion and intimacy and total trust and confidence in the Lord.

THE PROVISION OF GOD

For those who endure to the end, there is a reward. Those who walk by faith must believe God but also that he rewards those who seek him.

The reward of Abraham’s faith was God’s perfect provision. The Lord did exactly as Abraham told Isaac he would.

He provided for himself the lamb.

Genesis 22:13–14 CSB

13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

Genuine faith is rewarded with God’s perfect provision.

The name of God here is Jehova-Jireh.

The Hebrew words means “to see to something.” To see to it.

You’ve heard the phrase if God brings you to it then he will see you through it.

The provision of God is what drives us up the mountain of God’s testing in our life.

It’s wasn’t Abraham’s will power. It wasn’t his desire to please God or prove how strong he was.

It wasn’t anything other than the conviction, “The LORD will provide the lamb.”

The True Mount Moriah

To this day on the top of Mount Moriah there is a place that speaks Jehovah Jireh.

Were you ever curious why the Lord had Abraham go 50 miles in a different direction to do this thing? Why not where he lived?

It’s because God was having Abraham prophetically “act out” what God would himself do one day in the future.

The rest of the Old Testament sets the stage for this cosmic act of redemption.

Abraham sacrificed a substitutionary lamb on the top of Mount Moriah in the place of his son.

Later on, the Lord would lead David to build a threshing floor on this site followed by his son King Solomon who would build the temple on the same mount. (2 Chron 3:1)

This temple was the place where animal sacrifices were made to make atonement for the sins of the people.

But all of this was foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice that needed to take place for God to be both just and the justifier of those who believe.

How could a God of justice also be a God of mercy and grace as we see in this story?

Not because of the blood of bulls and goats. Not even the blood of an innocent child like Isaac could atone for sin.

No, only the blood of the sinless spotless son of God could make atonement for sin in that way. And that’s exactly what Jesus achieved through his substitutionary death on the cross.

THAT is what Genesis 22 is all about. It’s about the death of a promised Son who made atonement for the sins of the world in order that Jehovah-Jireh might offer salvation for those who believe.

Isaac & Jesus

When you look at Genesis 22 through the lens of the New Testament you begin to see all the parallels so starkly.

Both births were prophesied and came at just right time. (Gen 18:9-14; Isa 7:14; Gen 21:1-2; Gal 4:4)

Both children had names assigned before they were born. (Gen 17:19; Mat 1:21)

Both children had conceptions were miraculous. (Gen 18:14; Luke 1:30-35, 37)

Both were obedient to the Father’s will (Luke 22:42; Gen 22:5-6)

Both carried wood up the hill on their back. (John 19:17)

Both were the beloved and begotten sons of their father. (Gen 22:2; John 3:16; Mat 3:17)

Both were sacrificed on Mount Moriah. (2 Chron 3:1; Gen 22:2;

Both believed in a victorious resurrection. (Gen 22:3-5; Heb 11:17-19)

Both have a servant go and look for a bride.

Isaac was pointing to Jesus. And Abraham’s genuine faith was even more perfectly displayed by someone greater than Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ.

More than any other person he expressed “Genuine faith” that

came from a heart that was totally surrendered to God

was visibly expressed through courageous acts of obedience

was continually enabled by confidence in the faithfulness of his Father.

was effectively extended into the hearts of his 12 disciples

endured the cross, despising the shame finishing out the will of his father

and experienced the provision of God by being raised from the dead on the third day.

God’s provision on Mt. Moriah ultimately points to Jesus.

Jesus is the greater Isaac. Jesus is the greater Abraham. Jesus is both the author and the finisher of our faith.

And because Jesus has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves our response is to receive him by faith.

Walk in him by faith. Live for him by faith. Wait on him in faith. Until the day we together experience the God’s provision and deliverance at his second coming. s