The Lord Himself Guides & Provides

9.3.25 [Genesis 22:1-18] River of Life (8th Sunday after Pentecost)

After a life filled with obstacles, troubles, and challenges, who could blame Abraham if he was hoping to coast in his golden years? 

When he was 75 years old, the Lord called him to leave his homeland and go to the place the Lord would show him. And as soon as he arrived in the land of the Canaanites, he encountered Gen. 12:10 a severe famine. 

After finding food and refuge in Egypt for a time, Abraham returned to the land of the Canaanites—the land the Lord had promised to give to him and his descendants. But as soon as he arrived again, family strife broke out. His nephew Lot’s herders began to Gen. 13:7 quarrel with Abraham’s men about grasslands and water rights. They couldn’t thrive being surrounded by the Canaanites on every side. So Abraham’s small family parted ways. 

At 85, Abraham’s wife had become fed up with her barrenness. She told Abraham Gen. 16:2 The Lord has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her. Biologically, Sarah was right. Her slave Hagar conceived and gave birth to a son, Ishmael. Abraham loved Ishmael as his own, But Sarah recognized this family was being built without her and she grew resentful.

At the ripe age of 100, the Lord blessed Abraham and Sarah with their first and only child—Isaac. Laughter and joy filled their hearts and their household—for a time. When Isaac was weaned, Abraham held a great feast as was the tradition. But when Ishmael started mocking Isaac, Sarah had had enough and demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Stress & strife seemed to follow Abraham everywhere. 

Who could blame him if he just wanted some peace and quiet for the latter part of his life? But all of those troubles and challenges seem like small potatoes compared to what we read in Genesis 22. 

After all these things, Gen. 22:1-2 God tested Abraham and 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.  

Even with the benefit of knowing exactly how this whole account turns out, this demand still turns our stomachs, wrenches our hearts, and troubles our minds. How could God make such a demand? 

How could Abraham go along with this? Why doesn’t he push back or at least ask God why he would ask him to do the unthinkable? 

What strikes me as all these questions and more race through my mind is how little Abraham says. Gen. 22:1 Here I am is all he says to God. To the two servants accompanying him:  Gen. 22:5 Stay here with the donkey, while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. To his only son that he’s planning on sacrificing: Gen. 22:8 God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And finally, Gen. 22:11 Here I am. 

In each of these statements, Abraham confesses his faith. 

In the first place, Abraham did not dismiss the voice of God calling him by name as some kind of hallucination or fever dream. By this point, Abraham knew the voice of the Lord well. He was quite familiar with God’s wisdom and power. He was personally acquainted with God’s promises & love. 

In the second statement, he gives assurance to his servants based on God’s wisdom, power, promises, and love. Gen. 22:5 We will worship and then we will come back to you. Heb. 11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise his son from the dead and Abraham would not return to his servants until the Lord had done such a miracle. 

In his third statement, Abraham seems to predict the future. But God doesn’t provide a lamb. He provides a ram. And in the moment, Abraham doesn’t know that God is going to do that. Instead, he is hinting at the fact that the lamb, the young one, is his son, Isaac. 

Finally, the repeated response. Gen. 22:11 Here I am. Maybe that doesn’t strike you as all that remarkable, but put yourself in Abraham’s sandals. What would you have said to God after he put you through all that grief and stress? Probably a bit more than Here I am, right? 

Whenever we contemplate an account like this, we tend to fixate on Abraham. On what he did and what he didn’t do. On what he said and what he didn’t say. And Abraham’s word and actions are amazing. But if we just fixate on him, we’ll miss the bigger picture. 

Abraham’s faith here is remarkable. That’s why this event is included in Hebrews 11. It is a jaw-dropping and mind-bending expression of trust in the Lord’s promises and confidence in the Lord’s power. Abraham knocked this test out of the park. 

But this was not the only test Abraham faced in his life. And some of them he flat-out failed. 

When famine forced him to Egypt, he told his wife, Sarah, to tell people that she was only his sister so that he would be treated well by the Pharaoh. 

When things weren’t progressing with Sarah getting pregnant, Abraham took matters into his own hands and agreed to sleep with Hagar and try to build a family without Sarah. 

When the Lord came to Abram and told him that he and his wife were getting some new names because they were going to have a son in the next year and his name was going to be Isaac, Abraham seems to have decided not to tell Sarah the news. 

And even after all that, Abraham let another king take Sarah into his palace. Even when the Lord promised she would have his child soon!

While there are many moments when Abraham walked faithfully before the Lord, he did not have a spotless record. There were many crucial moments when Abraham was faithless. Yet, the Lord remained faithful to all his promises and to all his people.  

When we step back and don’t just focus on Abraham, we realize that this account has a lot to teach us. Like Abraham, our lives are full of tests. They may not be to the scale we see here, but our faith is tested frequently. Is God’s wisdom the foundation of your confidence? Do you rely on God’s power, or is it merely your spiritual emergency generator? Do you cling to God’s promises or lean on your own understanding? Do you believe that God loves you, even when you are dealing with unwelcome circumstances and problems? 

Like Abraham, everything that God has given to us is a trust. The treasures, the abilities, the opportunities, and even the people we have in our lives are gifts from God. We may enjoy them, but we do not own them for eternity. Do we recognize that God is Lord over all things in this world and in our lives? 

These are crucial questions on the test that lies before us today. Today is the first day of many Sundays in this place. How many? Well that’s the question I’ve been asked many times. I don’t know. More than we want, probably. Do we trust God’s wisdom? His power? Are we relying on his promises to be Lord of the church and rule all things for her good? Do we believe that the Lord of all loves each of us individually? 

Whenever we lose sight of those truths, we will be overwhelmed by what we have given up. We will be devastated when familiar faces fade to the background. We will become weary when the setup doesn’t go smoothly. We will be ready to throw in the towel when our congregation doesn’t grow by leaps and bounds overnight. 

In these moments, remember God’s wisdom and power. Focus on his faithfulness to all his promises. Draw upon the depths of his love. And remember that whatever the Lord demands, he always delivers. Wherever God guides us, he will provide for us. 

That’s what he did for Abraham. On that day, it was a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. The Lord provided a substitute for Abraham’s only son, Isaac. But 2000 years later, it would be God’s only Son, who was sacrificed on that same mountain. Mount Moriah is where Jerusalem is later founded. 2000 years later, God the Father put the wood of the cross on the back of his Son. 2000 years later, God the Father allowed his only Son to be bound and nailed to a tree. 2000 years later, God’s only Son cried out to the heavens My God, My God why have you forsaken me. 2000 years later, the Lord of heaven and earth did not intervene. 2000 years later, God did not withhold his son, his only Son from death. 

What seemed foolish was God’s wise plan of salvation. What appeared to be weakness and death was the only way that God could open the gates of eternal life for sinners. What looked like abandonment was God being faithful to his promises. What God demanded, he has provided in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. Where God guides us, he will provide for us. 

And that is our confidence in the days ahead. How many will we spend in this space, I do not know. God only knows. And here in this place, he will do as he has always done. He will unfold his wisdom. He will demonstrate his power. He will keep alll his promises. And he will shower us with his ceaseless love. And we will come to know this place as the place the Lord provides. Amen.