Genesis 22

Through the Gates of Splendor is the story of Elisabeth Elliot, a woman whose life and work exemplify the words, Trust and Obey.  She is remembered as the courageous newlywed who stayed in Ecuador to share the Gospel with the violent Waorani tribe.  In 1956, members of the tribe brutally murdered Elisabeth’s husband.  They had been married only 2 years and had a 10 month old baby girl. This was the beginning of her humble life of active faith which was expressed in the writing of over 40 books, teaching the bible, and speaking on the Gospel, marriage, and family for the next 60 years, literally up until her death in 2015.  It was written about her that she was not a fearless hero, but instead that she wrestled with obeying God.  In one of Elliot’s messages near the end of her life she said, “Don’t get in touch with your feelings, submit radically to God, and do what is right no matter what. Put your love life on the altar and keep it there until God takes it off. Suffering is normal. Have you no scars, no wounds, with Jesus on the Calvary road?” 

While reading this week’s text, I was struck by how the narrative is missing any description of feelings, or emotional response.  Moses simply writes the play by play and we don’t even read about Isaac’s experience or his response to what would be quite an emotional circumstance.  Because of Elisabeth’s submissive choice to Trust and Obey the Great Commission, members of the Waorani tribe came to embrace Christianity.  Instead of holding on to bitterness over the brutal murder of her husband and focusing inward, she instead lifted her eyes to the upward call of God. Her’s is just one of many stories of modern day individuals chosen by God to do His will.

Because of Abraham’s radical submission to God’s instruction, we see the actions of faith, what was later written of, a friendship with God, and the foreshadowing of a greater sacrifice, made in that same temple mount location.   Abraham’s story, like Elisabeth Elliot’s, gives us an example of fully trusting our Sovereign God for His perfect provision within His perfect timing. In light of those examples, our first point of the evening is that 

When God calls, We Should Respond

Just like the Israelites who learned from Moses, we read several times in our study of Genesis about God’s decision not just to lay out a plan for Abraham’s life, but to give him specific promises.  These promises were not for an unspecified future.  God told Abraham of the things to come and it was fully realized in the birth of Abraham & Sarah’s son, Isaac. 

Open your bibles or study books and let’s look at the first 5 verses of Genesis 22. 

“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 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.”3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 

What was Abraham’s immediate response to God’s test?  Upon hearing the voice of the Lord, Abraham replies “Here I am.”  He made himself present and available, and early the next morning, he rose and began what must have been a very hard three day journey.  How else did he respond? He took his son, he cut the wood, and then he journeyed until he saw the place God planned out. He wasn’t leaning on his own understanding, lying to protect himself, or following his own agenda.  He responded fully to God’s call.  

What is God calling you to do?  The words of Jesus in Luke 9 tells us we are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow God. Will you respond the way Abraham did the next time you recognize God’s call? Maybe you are called to deny those extra work hours to spend more time with your family? How about sacrificing  a vacation week to participate in a missions trip? Denying ourselves daily may even mean something as simple as denying our need for speed and being content to drive 65.  Our actions speak louder than our words.  How do your actions demonstrate your faith in God? In our spiritual journeys, the steps we take, no matter how large or small, are our responses to God’s calling.  Even so, I take confidence that 

When the Task is Hard, (I can) Trust God.  That is our second point.  

When the Task is Hard, Trust God Look back at the text starting in verse 6

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 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?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.9 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. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 

How hard must it have been for Abraham to load up his son with the wood for the altar? Can you imagine how hard Abraham was praying as we walked next to his son with the fire and a knife? He trusted God would provide so much so that he tells the young men, “we will worship then return to you again.” The writer of Hebrews 11 in verse 19 writes “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”  Warren Wiersbe writes, “We live by promises, not explanations.”  God didn’t have to explain. Abraham’s trust in the promises he had already seen allowed him to trust the future promise of Isaac’s offspring. 

The Israelites were not as blessed as we are to see this supernatural glimpse at the future victory over death we rejoice in.  God’s only Son who willingly gave himself as a sacrifice was raised from the dead for us and our promise of an eternal relationship with Him. 

It isn’t news to us that lasting relationships are built on trust.  Think about Pastor Dustin’s warning two weeks ago. He said, “Marriages struggle when they lose grace, honor, and forgiveness.”  All three of those come from a place of trust.  As the bride of Christ, have you set aside a specific time and place in your home to focus on your relationship with God?  Intentionally building up trust in advance of the hard tasks we will face is essential.  If you don’t already have a place to spend time in the Word and in prayer, think about a specific place and a time to meditate on verses that speak about God’s faithfulness such as Proverbs 3:5-6 or Philippians 4:6-7. Write down your prayers, including your fears and challenges, and bring those before God. Even in moments when we cannot see the outcome, our trust in God can be tested but ultimately strengthened. 

Our scriptures this week reveal an incredible picture of a promised son’s love and trust in his father as they walked together. Abraham trusted his heavenly Father knowing that even though this was a crazy-difficult request, the son he and Sarah had waited for for so long was a promise fulfilled by our faithful God.  Isaac trusted his father up to the point of Abraham drawing the knife, not knowing what was going on. Jesus carried his own cross, walked up Golgotha, and allowed himself to be nailed on that cross with complete knowledge of what was going on.  Just like the young man Isaac could have resisted and overpowered his 127 year old father, Jesus could have enacted divine strength to avoid the humiliation and brutal punishment undeserved, yet His ultimate trust and obedience was displayed on the cross as we read in Philippians 2:6-8 Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 

Through His sacrifice, Jesus provided the way for us. I wish I had more time to explore all the symbolism and prophetic similarities, but we would be here for another week.  I hope you will spend some time in small group looking into the way we see Christ’s sacrificial provision in this portion of Genesis.  

My final imperative for you this evening is: 

Believe that God will Provide

I don’t know what you may need this evening, but I know if it is wrapped up in the purpose God has for you, He will provide.  Even in the testing and trials we can be sure that God is there with all knowledge of what’s to come and His provision will not leave us wanting.  In James 1:2-4 we read “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” It is God who will provide steadfastness.  God will give us what we need.  And God will reward our desire to please Him as we step out in faith pursuing things we cannot see. God is even generous enough to provide the tests that will grow my faith.  When the angel calls out from heaven, not once, but twice - “Abraham, Abraham, we see God’s eagerness to fulfill His promises.  As we act in obedience, our omniscient or all-knowing God is there at the ready to provide what He knows is best. We see God’s foresight and readiness to provide when he shows Abraham the ram in the thicket. Notice that it wasn’t a lamb, because we have the end of the story. We know the Lamb of God is being kept for a future sacrifice as is hinted at there in verse 14 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.”  Abraham’s genuine faith required him to step into uncertainty, but he trusted in God’s purpose.  God sometimes asks of us what seems beyond comprehension, but just as the final verses confirmed that because Abraham did not withhold his son, and because he obeyed God’s voice, God declared and confirmed his blessings and promises.  God’s provision is what strengthens us  to trust Him, and act out our faith with boldness as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, “in verse 4 we read “just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.   And in verse 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves,”    Spend quality time looking into the life of Elisabeth Elliot, an incredible woman of God who responded to God’s call, trusted Him when the task was unbelievabl hard, and spent her life sharing His provision by first giving to the Waorani people for many years after the death of her husband to learn the Waorani language and then making it her life’s work to share God’s provision by writing and teaching about the trustworthiness of God, the blessings of obedience,  and the hope of joy in the midst of sacrifice and sorrow.  In one of her messages she said, “We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”  Like her, we can also respond, trust and receive from our God, it was “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?” Romans 8:32