God Himself
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“If you give God the gifts He’s given you, He’ll give you Himself!”
Genesis 22:1-19
Have you ever been around a baby or a toddler as they learn to communicate? Early on, before they can really speak through ideas, they make attempts to be part of the world around them. They want to be involved with their family and others, and though they can’t yet speak, they want to express ideas. Of course, sometimes this means they express things in ways that are not what we could consider “ideal”. They don’t know how to say they are hurting, or hungry, or tired, so they use a communication tool that involves no words. When they have a need or want, they deploy different strategies to get mom or dad to provide it for them, and it can be very frustrating, not only for the child, but for the parents as well as both parties try to negotiate through the crisis and find a solution that is acceptable by both parties. This is a very diplomatic way of saying it; many of you know that it is not an easy task. Then there are times when the child attempts to convey love, and those times are precious and very special. One of the ways a child will show affection is to hand over their favorite object to a person. Often it is a favorite stuffed animal or other toy, or a blanket, or even a binky. They will hand it to a person they love and I believe this is a way of showing affection to that person. In their own way, they are trying to let that person know “I Love you. Here is my most prized and precious possession. I am handing it to you to let you know that I love you.” This is a beautiful gesture, but what always happens next? You are supposed to hand it right back. If you don’t, the warmness of the moment may quickly dissolve into the child being upset. Yes, they love you enough to hand you their favorite thing, but they want you to give it back!
Did you know that God wants us to give back the gifts He gives us? He often wants to see if we love Him enough to give up that which is dear to us. It is because He wants to be first in our lives, and wants us to desire Him above all else.
If you give God the gifts He’s given you, He’ll give you Himself!
When we think of toddlers giving their favorite toy up only to want it right back, we need to remember that in a way, it is like that with God. Whatever He gives us, whatever his blessings are for us, He wants us to take that blessing and immediately give it back to Him. God ultimately wants us to be ready to give up that which He has blessed us with in order that we may have something even better: God Himself. This is demonstrated in an extraordinary way in the story about Abraham being tested in Genesis 22. If you have your bibles, let’s turn there together. Now, most of the time, I use the ESV, but this morning I am going to read this passage from the NIV, so if you like to follow word for word as I read, it will be on the screens for you.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded 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.
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.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time
and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
This is a long passage with many story elements for us to take note of. In this case there is a phrase I prefer in the NIV translation, this phrase that sums up God's entire plan for us, and it is in the response to Isaac's question about where the lamb is. Abraham’s response is a statement of great faith in God, and there is a truth greater than Abraham likely realized even as he said it: “God himself will provide the lamb.”
If you give God the gifts He’s given you, He’ll give you Himself!
I want to share with you about God’s faithfulness in providing for us, and I came up with a sort of formula to help us remember some of the implications of this passage as it relates to God’s provision.
God gives
You give back
God gives himself
The first part of the formula is that God gives. He provides us with blessings. These blessings, or gifts, can be something to meet our physical needs, but more importantly, he provides for our emotional and spiritual needs. Anything we have or will have is from God. Scripture makes this clear in many passages that attribute all things, material and nonmaterial to God, and also we know that God gives good gifts. James1.17-18
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
God has provided us with many good things, hasn’t he? He provides us with health, relationships, spiritual direction, and as James said, every good thing. Abraham had certainly enjoyed God’s provision. God had already caused Abraham to become a mighty man, as a warrior, a very successful cattle man and a friend of God. God had promised Abraham that he would become a great nation, and this would happen through Isaac his son.
Abraham had great faith, and through his own trials, failures, and successes, He had learned that God is faithful. Abraham knew that God was the source of all of his provision. One of the greatest things God had done for Abraham was to give him his son, Isaac. You know the story, Sarah laughed when she heard it. They were old and past the years of having children, yet God promised and fulfilled that promise. Isaac was born at a time appointed and foretold by God. So Abraham had no trouble understanding the first part our formula: God gives.
The next part of the formula is far more difficult. The first part is very nice, we are the recipients of God’s provision, his loving kindness. But the second part of the formula is: you give back. This seems a little surprising. We may think it is a little like that toddler who just handed us their favorite toy, and they expect it to be given right back. God gives us all of our provision, but he expects us to be willing to give it back to him.
So now Abraham is asked to give up his son, the very son that God had provided him. It seems a little strange, doesn’t it? After the extraordinary miraculous birth of Isaac, God now asks for Abraham to give him back. Now this seems to us to be, well, an ungodly request. Abraham might have thought so, too. But Abraham had something going for him: He had witnessed God’s hand in his life, and he knew God to be faithful. God had already kept his word to Abraham in many ways, and Abraham trusted God implicitly.
While he must have agonized over sacrificing His son, Abraham figured out his own formula so to speak. I imagine it went something like this: “God promised to make me a mighty nation through Isaac. God is always faithful. Isaac was born at the time God appointed. God will keep his promise to me regarding Isaac. I don’t know how, but He will do it! I am to trust God and give back what He gave me. God will keep his promise, even if I sacrifice Isaac. Perhaps He will raise Him from the dead! I know God is faithful.” Abraham must have had confidence that God would somehow give Isaac back, since he told his servants”We will return.” This is what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he wrote about this story: Hebr11.19
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Abraham trusted God enough to give up his son; we must also be willing to give back to God the things He has given us. In other words, we need to have an attitude that shows our complete reliance and trust in God, so that nothing, not material things, not our relationships, not our jobs, nor any other thing is beyond the scope of things that we would willingly give back to God.
This is not only about material blessings. It is about the spiritual gain that we will have when we submit ourselves to God in such a way that when we are clearly shown His will in our lives, we will act on it, and despite our apprehension or inability to see how it will turn out, we will say to God, “Yes, I trust you. You have proven yourself to me. I will do your will.” It is about our attitude.
This is because anything that is more important to us than our relationship with God is something that actually depreciates our quality of life, especially our spiritual life. So what we need to give to God may not be material. It could be pride, things we covet, or even things that waste our time. Whatever it is, we need to put God first, because He is first.
Jesus had a rich young man ask him what he needed to do for eternal life, and he told him to sell all of his possessions and give it to the poor. The young man went away. It seems he was unable to put God ahead of his way of life. What Jesus said to this man is not a formula that every follower of Christ needs to literally do.
Jesus saw the man’s heart and knew what was keeping him from eternal life was a love for, and dependence on, his earthly wealth. We may not be called to do this, but we need to be willing to give everything back to God, just as Abraham did.
So while the first part of our formula is easy, God gives, the second part, you give back, is much more difficult. If you can do it, though, you will get something even better than God’s provision; God gives himself.
Abraham knew God was faithful, and he knew his part was to trust God. So Abraham did this. God saw that Abraham was willing to give Him everything, even the very provision of his son, Isaac. God saw that Abraham trusted Him enough to know that His previous word about making a great nation through Isaac could not be broken. So Abraham got something better. Abraham had told Isaac that God himself would provide the lamb, and God did provide a lamb then and there for Abraham to sacrifice. That is why Abraham named the place “The Lord will provide”. Other potential translations could also mean “God will see to it”, or “God will be seen”.
Abraham’s faith in God, and his willingness to give back to God all that he had, resulted in God giving an expanded view of his promise to Abraham, that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore, and also that the nations would be blessed though his offspring. And that is exactly what happened.
Why? God himself. God Himself provided a lamb. This story of Abraham and Isaac is part of many traditions, but for the Christian, this story summarizes or illustrates the gospel. The entire story is filled with pictures of the future provision of God through Jesus Christ. The parallels between this story and the gospel of Christ could each be studied separately, and one could spend several weeks just on this story, but for now, let us look at some of them:
An earthly father and a heavenly father, both who love their sons, and both willing to sacrifice their own sons.
Both of these sons born through miraculous means.
Both fathers give up their sons knowing that the final outcome is already set.
An earthly son, and the Son of God, both ready and willing to be sacrificed.
One carries the wood for the fire, one carries his own cross.
There is one significant difference, though, between the story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of Jesus. God provided the lamb so that Isaac would not need to die.
For Jesus, there was no ram in the thicket.
For Jesus, there was no sacrifice to substitute for him, because he was the substitute.
Jesus didn't have a ram in the thicket because he was our ram in the thicket.
Jesus died in our place.
Jesus became the sacrifice so we don't have to die for our sins.
Jesus loved us enough do take our place.
Jesus died for us to have eternal life.
Abraham was willing to give back that which God had provided, his son Isaac, and Isaac was willing to trust in God as well. God the Father was willing to give up his son, and Jesus trusted in God to raise Him again.
Abraham understood the formula. God gives, you give back, and God gives himself. What was better to Abraham than his son Isaac? Well, he got Isaac back, but he also got the promise of God. When we are willing to give up the blessings of God, we get something even better: God himself. Today, we need to be willing to give ourselves up for God. He always has something better in mind when we are willing to give him all we have. Paul said we are to be crucified with Christ. This means we are to die to those things that separate us from God. So we are to give up our very lives. When we do give up our lives, we get them back, and even more so, an eternal life in an eternal, incorruptible body.
One interesting side note about the location of Abraham's test: the mountain range Abraham and Isaac traveled to to make the sacrifice was the future site of the city on the hill, Jerusalem, the location of Solomon's temple, where God dwelled among His people. The highest point in these hills, where many believe Abraham built the altar to sacrifice Isaac, is known as Golgotha, but you and I usually refer to it as Calvary, where God himself provided the Lamb who died once for all.
What does this mean to us today? God has given each of us many good gifts, but the greatest is the gift of Jesus Christ. Without Christ, we are like Isaac, on our way to our doom. The weight of our sins, and our own inability to reconcile ourselves to God without some kind of special intervention leaves us, like Isaac, helplessly bound, waiting for that final blow of death that each of us deserves.
The moment we realize that there is no saving ourselves, the Angel of the Lord Cries out. He cries out through a preacher, or evangelist, or through a Christian who cares enough to share the truth. Many theologians believe the Angel of the Lord referred to here was what is called a pre-incarnate theophany.
This means they think that it was Jesus himself who called out to Abraham, sparing Isaac. John tells us that Jesus is the Word who was there in the beginning, and it is this Word that saved Isaac, and this Word saves still today. That knife was poised above us, our destruction certain, until our moment of salvation, the moment when we realized that God himself provided the lamb, The Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world.
Brothers and sisters, that lamb is the greatest of our good gifts from God. God himself provided it, and gave us back our lives. We are to give our lives, which He spared for us, back to Him. He wants us to give our lives back, so that we may have more of him. If there is one here who has not yet put faith in Jesus, God’s provision of the sacrificial lamb, I plead with you to seek him today. God said through the prophet Jeremiah29.13
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
If you have received the provision of God, give him your life, and He will give you so much more. Paul said in the letter to the Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
The toddler who gives up his toy in a gesture of kindness expects to receive it back. God’s gift of grace is given to us so that we can give it back. What is it that God wants from you? Do you trust Him enough to give it to Him? God always has something better for you than what you can even imagine: God himself.
In the finality of it all, the Revelation of John tells us that 24 elders will receive crowns of glory, but their immediate response will be to cast those crowns at the feet of Jesus.
Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.
From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God,
and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:
the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Who provided the Lamb?
God Himself.
Who asks us to give everything to Him?
God Himself.
What is the greatest reward for submitting ourselves to God’s will and willingly giving all that we have?
God Himself.
“If you give God the gifts He’s given you, He’ll give you Himself!”
God gives, you give back,God gives himself.
Jesus calls on all of His followers to be disciples, or learners or apprentices. And this involves us giving of ourselves, by studying His word and being transformed by the renewing of our minds, in becoming like Christ.
Recently, a group of men here at Oasis completed a course called Heart of a Warrior. This course was difficult, and a lot of homework and self-examination took place. This morning and next Sunday these men are going to share briefly about this experience. Please give your attention to them as they share:
Kevin
Charles
Barry
Nate
