God will see to it!

Good Morning! If you were able to join us on Wednesday, we kick off the Lenten season by observing Ash Wednesday.

One of the thing discussed when ever we think of Lent is, what will we give up? If you are not familiar with the practice you might even ask, why am I supposed to give something up? Well, lent is a time preparing for us for Easter. It is forty days (not including Sundays) that begins on Ash Wednesday and goes to Easter Sunday.

The giving something up, marks the forty days and nights Jesus spent in the dessert preparing for His ministry and ultimately His sacrifice. So, like Jesus we choose something to give up, so we can focus or remind ourselves daily of what Jesus did for us.

As we our continuing to spend time in the Old Testament, today we are going to look at the greatest test of obedience that anyone in the Bible ever faced. See, I want to see how it relates to the death of Christ and how it relates to us today.

Let’s begin in .

Genesis 22:1–19 NIV

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.

Every time I read this narrative, I think this cannot be my God. My God does not ask for child sacrifices. He did not really mean this? Where is the shock and awe that Abraham should be exhibiting? But he did ask! He did mean!

Abraham was not shocked because in his world giving you child would be the true meaning of sacrifice in the ancient world. God deserves everything because he has given us everything. So ancient peoples instinctively knew that authentic sacrifice could never be just a nod to God. The sacrifice owed to the Creator must be big and precious enough to represent our entire lives.

That’s why human sacrifice was so prevalent in ancient times–the offering of the firstborn was seen as the only adequate worship of the gods responsible for our very existence. In , God stops Abraham before he slays his son. The command to sacrifice Isaac was a test to see if Abraham was truly devoted to God in faith, obedience, and gratitude. God does not want Isaac’s blood, only Abraham’s heart. So, he provides a substitute, a ram, which shows the true meaning of all authentic sacrifice – we give to God something precious that represents our very selves.

In God has been identified as the Enduring God. There Abraham called on the name of Yahweh as El Olam (“the Enduring God”), and it is that God who tests him sometime later. The birth of Isaac, the resolution of the Ishmael dilemma, and the settling in around Beersheba in the chapter 21, the designation of Yahweh as the Enduring God indicates the stability, security, and permanence that Abraham now feels in the covenant and in his relationship with God.[1]

But why does God choose to test Abraham? When God tests, he tests some value, quality, or attribute by stretching it to its limits. In most cases he is testing the faith and faithfulness of individuals or of Israel by expecting them to obey in difficult circumstances (cf. esp. ; ).

His purpose is to see what Abraham is prepared to give up. In the end God’s reason and God’s purpose are one and the same.

The text maintains that the sequence of events is done for God’s benefit. This stunning suggestion would seem impossible were it not for the clarity of verse 12: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” God himself focuses on what he gains from the test.

In essence, it is a test of Abraham’s relationship with Yahweh. It asks whether Abraham’s trust is really in God, and not simply in what God has promised. Abraham has built altars before and sacrificed to this God, when God renewed the promises. Is he willing now to build an altar and sacrifice the promises themselves, embodied in his son, in order to demonstrate his unswerving trust in the God who stands behind the promises?

What God is really asking Abraham is has your faith been motivated by personal gain or simply by your love for me?

Sometimes, we can get complacent. We take credit for more than we deserve to take credit for. We think like the rich fool in Luke, “I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

We sometimes even believe we are entitled to it. Like God should thank us for being a Christian. Like, giving God our leftovers should be acceptable to Him.

See God wanted to see if Abraham was hedging his bets in the promises of God or simply because of his love for God.

The question that we must ask today is, “Do we sacrifice for God because we love Him or because the alternative to heaven does not appeal to us?”

As the story progresses there are a few more things I would like to point out.

The text gives us no indication of Abraham being hesitant to obeying God. The man who lied about his wife’s identity, could not wait long enough to see the promise of a child come about, argues with God over the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, has now matured to the point in his faith that he responds to the call. Why? Because by this time he has enough faith that God will fulfill his promise because he has a relationship with God that goes past the promises. The writer of Hebrews reasoned that Abraham believed God would bring Isaac back from the dead.

If we think about the text for a moment, we might come to the conclusion that Abraham’s three-day journey was part of the test. Three days to consider turning back. Three days to argue with God, but we see none of that. We see a man obedient to his God.

When they arrive and are beginning up the mountain Isaac asks something we all would ask, “Where is the Lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham’s answer is “Yahweh Yireh” or “God will see to it.”

This is to be read as complementary to the name given to God at the end of the last chapter—El Olam, the Enduring God, which depicts him as responsible for the grand scheme of things. He is the God of the long term. Here his response to Isaac and the designation of the place recognizes the Lord as God of the short term, caring for the needs of the moment.

What did Abraham learn through this process and what do I want you to know today?

That God is both El Olam and Yahweh Yireh. He is the enduring provider and the God who will see to it.

He has done it for us today and will continue to do it?

There are a few more things I want to point out, while comparing it to what God did later through Jesus.

· Where Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, God did it.

· Where Abraham journeyed three days to the mountain for the sacrifice, Jesus was in the tomb for three days, waiting to return.

· Where Isaac carried the wood upon his back. Jesus carried the cross on His.

· Through this action God proved to be our El Olam and through our journey with Him we will encounter Yahweh Yireh. The God who will see to it.

This is the type of test set before Abraham: Are you willing to follow God if there is nothing in it for you?

Understand God never promises the easy life. I honestly believe the easy life makes us complacent. During out life we will encounter situations that will stretch and challenge us personally and professionally.[2]

I believe, God tests us not by trying to make us miserable but by disrupting our comfort zones, thereby forcing us to rely on him.[3]

So, I want you to remember…

That God is both El Olam and Yahweh Yireh. He is the enduring provider and the God who will see to it.

So, I leave you with a few questions to think about during this season of Lent.

· Do you sacrifice for God because you love Him or because the alternative to heaven does not appeal to you?

· Are you willing to follow God if there is nothing in it for you?

· God tests us to help us rely on Him. Where today do you need to rely on Him.

[1] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 509.

[2] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 519.

[3] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 519.