Abraham and the Perfect Sacrifice

Not every conversation I had with God is fully recorded in your bibles. Just the ones God felt were necessary for the foundational history are there. For instance, God recorded in Genesis when He told me to leave Haran to go to Canaan. But it was through Joshua, and later Stephen in Acts where God recorded how He appeared to me while I was in Mesopotamia.

Acts 7:2–4 NIV

To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.

God recorded the things He knew were necessary to give the foundational understanding. But not every conversation He had with me, nor every conversation he had with others for that matter.

Another famous man from my time knew a lot about Jesus and the resurrection which you will celebrate on Sunday. You may remember him. His name was Job. Job knew that,

Job 19:25–27 NIV

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job knew a lot about Jesus and the resurrection because God talked with us and revealed more to us than is recorded in the Bible.

Too many people miss those little details, and fail to see that we knew more about Jesus, and what He was coming to do than you think!

We knew it—we saw it because God revealed it to us, off-the-record so to speak. That is why Jesus himself rebuked my descendents who were not believing in him when he said,

John 8:56 NIV

Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

Yes, I saw it. God revealed it to me, and tonight, I want to share with you, what God revealed to me. Do you have the time? Would you like to hear? Well, you’re here, I’m here… here we go.

My Forefathers

Where to begin...

I was born to Terah, my father, about 300 years after God had flooded the world, saving my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Noah. That’s 8 greats, though they were not all so great.

Noah and his son Shem knew and followed our Lord. They found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I understand that now. They were not perfect, but God gave them grace, and they believed God.

Not long after God saved them when he flooded the world, within 100 years, my forefathers turned their hearts away from our creator, our true God, and started worshiping the things God created, like the stars, sun, moon, and even themselves.

They decided to make a name for themselves, and started to build a tower to the heavens. It was in the time of my great-great-great grandfather, Peleg, that God stopped them by giving them different languages, and scattering them throughout the earth.

My forefathers, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and Terah were in Ur, in Mesopotamia. There we worshiped the moon god. Yes, I was raised worshiping something God created, instead of giving Him the glory and honor he is due. That is, until that day… That day when God first showed me grace and mercy.

Mercy and Grace

God appeared to me. I cannot give you a reason why. I know I did not deserve it. I was an idolater, worshiping false Gods! I did not deserve it. Yet, He appeared to me.

I saw His glory, and greatness, the Holy Lord God Almighty. He was seated on His throne and the angels were praising him, Holy, Holy, Holy they said over and over… They were praising Him and I knew I was condemned, unclean before His holy presence because I did not revere him and worship Him. I instantly knew I was a dead man, being unrighteous in the presence of my Creator, my Judge.

But then, the unexplainable happened. He did not condemn. He did not treat me as I deserved, a sinner, condemned, unclean.

Instead, He said he wanted to bless me, and make me a blessing to others. He told me to leave my country and my people and go to the land He would show me.

Bless me? I was undeserving. I had not followed God as Noah and Shem had. I did not worship him. I worshiped false gods and thought only of myself, my glory. I turned my back on my Creator, I misused what He gave, and still He wanted to bless me?

My friends. That is unexplainable. That is mercy. He did not treat me as my sins deserved. He did not condemn. That is grace. He gave me blessing.

When he first appeared in his glory, my heart melted within me out of fear from the condemnation I deserved. When He commanded I revered Him as I heard all authority in His voice. When He promised, I worshiped Him for His grace and mercy. My heart welled up with praise.

Sarai

After He left me, I immediately went to my wife Sarai and told her to start packing! I told her about the one true God, the God of Noah and Shem who appeared to me. She rejoiced with me in the grace of His promises.

Then, she reminded me, we needed to tell our father. Yes, Sarai was my step-sister that I married. Our father, Terah, was a strong man, who ruled our family.

Terah

It was no small thing to tell him I was leaving. But I had to obey God. So I went to my father.

He took it…, not so well. You must understand. Family was very important. Terah was not pleased that I wanted to take Sarai and leave. He really did not like that I wanted to take Sarai and go, well, somewhere. God did not tell me where. He just said to go, and He would show me.

Imagine telling that to your father! He called me foolish. He called me many things, which I will not say to you. But in the end, I was just as stubborn as he. I told him I was going to obey God and go.

That is when Terah shocked me and said the family would go. My father was very strong, and since he was letting me go by going too, I thought, okay.

My friends, let me tell you, partial obedience is not obedience. I have learned that after my many years of walking with God. I did not obey God when he told me to leave my country and my people. But, God was faithful to me, nonetheless.

Haran

We traveled all together from Ur toward Canaan; a 1500 mile journey. Which would take several months.

Travelling was difficult in those days. We did not have the nice roads you have today. Nor did we have the vehicles with soft seats you have today. We loaded all we had onto our camels, donkeys and wagons, and set out. We had to carry all we needed with us. No McDonald’s stops. It took us a long time, and finally we came to a place called Haran, and being tired of travelling, Terah insisted we settle there.

God did not give me a deadline, and my father being the head of the family that he was, I decided it best to settle there.

My friends, another lesson I have learned through my life is that delayed obedience is also not obedience.

My partial obedience, and my delayed obedience to my Creator, my God who is Sovereign over all, was disobedience. I took his command and promise to bless me, and spurned it. To my shame, I treated God as less than He deserved. I treated Him as though He was unimportant compared to my father, as compared to me. I took His blessing for granted, as though it was nothing special.

I was still as unrighteous as I was before He appeared to me.

Eventually, Terah died.

Mercy and Grace

It was at this time that God showed me grace and mercy again.

Instead of abandoning me, as I had abandoned Him, God appeared to me again. I knew at once my disobedience, and guilt. I knew I deserved to be condemned. But instead of condemning, once again, God told me to go.

Once more He said to leave my country and my father’s household and to go to the land He would show me. He then gave me the most precious promise to make me into a great nation, to bless me, to make my name great, to make me a blessing, to bless those who bless me, to curse those who curse me, and to bless all peoples on earth through me!

What had I done to deserve this? Nothing! I was a sinner, one who had fallen away from God, one who disobeyed God.

So, God gave me mercy, He did not treat me as I deserved. God gave me grace, He gave me great blessing I did not deserve.

I was thrilled in my heart once again at the greatness, the power, the majesty, the glory, the compassion, the mercy and grace of God.

So, I packed all I had, and took Sarai, and Lot, my nephew to the land where God wanted me to go. Canaan.

Faith

Yes, God spoke, and I believed Him! That is what faith is! Believing God. And, when we believe, we will obey. I went in faith not knowing exactly where I was going, but trusting God when He said He would show me. It was a great time. And finally, we arrived in Canaan, and then at the great tree of Moreh at Shechem.

When I got there, the Lord appeared to me again! He promised to give this land of Canaan to my descendants! That was exciting! I was already 75, and did not have children yet, but God was going to give me descendants, and give them this land! What a great blessing!

But once again, one I did not deserve. Remember what I said about partial obedience? Well, when I left Harran, I did it again. I did not leave my family behind. I brought Lot with me. I thought, what is the big deal? I need to take care of my nephew, right? Wouldn’t that be pleasing to God to care for my nephew?

Well, once again, I took my own thoughts and put them above what God said. That was disobedience. So, once again, when God appeared, I knew my sin. That is when God showed me about sacrifices.

Sacrifice

God told me how just like Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, I disobeyed God. I rebelled against my Creator who deserves all praise, honor, respect and glory. I treat Him as less than myself, disrespecting and disobeying Him to fulfill my own desires. All disobedience and dishonor to God deserves punishment. The punishment is death, separation from God. The visible reminder of this separation from God, a spiritual death, is physical death, the separation of life from the body.

To help us remember the punishment for sin is separation from God, God taught Adam and Eve, and now me, to kill a lamb.

Why kill a lamb? Because sheep are dumb. A kind way of putting it, is they are innocent. The lamb was innocent. It was not sinful like me. And it had to be a perfect lamb. Not a sick one, or one that had some defect. It had to be a perfect, innocent lamb.

That lamb was innocent, and died in my place. It did not take away my sin. No lamb could do that. No part of creation was on the same level as man who was created in God’s image. It could not take away my sin. No, it was a reminder of my sin.

It’s physical death reminded me of the punishment I deserve. But instead of me being put to death, a lamb was being put to death in my place. It’s death symbolized, and reminded me of the punishment I deserve for my sin. Death: separation from God my source of life.

This sacrifice also symbolized God’s promise which bring hope. It not only symbolized my punishment. It also symbolized how God was going to send a man, who would be born of a woman, to take the punishment for me. It symbolized how there was going to be a perfect, innocent man who would one day truly die in my place to take my punishment! And not only that, but this man was going to be one of my descendants! That is how God was going to bless the whole world through me!

I rejoiced that God would show Mercy and Grace to me, and to the world by sending one to take the punishment for our sins.

And so, after God taught me, I built my first altar to do what God showed me. I sacrificed a lamb there at Shechem, and began worshiping the one true God, the LORD.

Egypt

About that time, came a famine in the land. When you are a shepherd with many sheep and cattle, you need to have water and places to graze the herds. In a famine there is neither. So, I decided to go to Eqypt where there was plenty of water and land for my herds.

When we were getting close, I heard about the Pharaoh and his love for beautiful women. Now, I am not boasting, but my wife Sarai was a looker! After hearing about Pharaoh, I was scared, so I told her to tell everyone that she was my sister, which she technically was, instead of telling them she was my wife.

Sure enough, Pharaoh caught sight of her and took her. But, God intervened and afflicted his whole household with sickness and revealed to him that the reason was because he took my wife.

Pharaoh wasn’t very happy with me, and kicked me out of the land. So, we went back to Canaan.

I travelled around for a while, wherever I could find enough water and grass, until I came back to where I built the altar. That is when I realized what I had done.

I had not trusted God, and instead tried to take care of things on my own. God does give us wisdom. We should use the head on our shoulders. He gave us a brain to use. But I was not being wise. Wisdom begins with the fear, respect for the Lord. I was just doing what was right in my own eyes without respecting His promises to bless me, and care for me. I did not trust him to preserve my life to fulfill the promises He made to me.

My friends, trusting my own wisdom without leaning on Him is disobedience.

Mercy and Grace

And yet, even though I did that, God showed mercy and grace.

God did not give me what I deserved. He did not abandon me to losing my wife to Pharaoh.

God did not give me into Pharaoh’s hand to be killed for my deception.

God did not give up on me for not trusting Him.

God gave me mercy by not treating me as I deserved.

Instead, God gave me grace. God restored my wife to me. God preserved all of the herds with which He had blessed me. God preserved my life and brought me back to the land where He wanted me.

I returned to the altar at Shechem between Bethel and Ai, and once again Sacrificed a lamb.

Sacrifice

Once again, an innocent, perfect lamb was dying.

As a shepherd, lambs are important to me. I am there for the birth of each one. I name each one. I care for each one, carrying it when it is tired, being sure it was watered and fed. It was precious to me.

That is when I realized, I was like that lamb to God. I was precious to Him. Even though I wandered away like a dumb sheep, He brought me back. He cared for me. And, He was going to provide for me. Not just with posessions and a good name. He was going to provide for my disobedience. He was going to provide a savior who would die to take away my sin which I continued to do over and over.

Lot

It was not long after this that Lot’s men and my own started fighting over the limited water and grass.

I knew that this was really my fault. God had told me to leave my family, and though I repented for disobeying, I was still keeping Lot with me.

My friends, repentance without obedience is not what God desires. I was still sinning, disobeying God’s command to separate from my family.

It was time to break off this sin. I told Lot to choose where he would go, and I would go the other way.

Lot chose the best land for himself. I understood. That is exactly what I would have done. Aren’t we all selfish, desiring the bigger half of the chocolate chip cookie we are sharing?

I separated from Lot, and then, God appeared to me again.

Mercy and Grace

Though I was getting the rough land where it was not ideal for my herds, God appeared to me. I believe He was pleased at my obedience. If it were me in God’s place, I would have thought, “Finally!” But God is patient, isn’t He? He showed mercy and grace once again, and promised to give me all the land. Well, not me, by my descendants, who he also promised would be as numerous as the dust of the ground! Wow, that is a lot of descendants!

So, I went and moved to Hebron where once again I built an altar, and continued to sacrifice and worship my Lord. I needed to sacrifice because I kept sinning and needing that reminder.

Growing in Faith

A while later, Lot was taken captive by four kings who defeated five other kings, including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah where Lot lived.

I took my servants, and with my two of my friends and their servants and we defeated those kings and rescued my nephew and the other people and possessions from Sodom and Gomorrah.

I knew that God had delivered the enemies into my hand, and I vowed to not take spoils from the battles so no one could claim to have made me rich. I had learned that God fulfills His promises, and I can trust Him to bless me. I do not need others to give and make me rich.

I had seen God blessing me over the years and fulfilling His promises. But the one promise to make me into a great nation, the promise to make my descendants as numerous as the dust, well I did not see that. I began to wonder how God was going to fulfill that promise.

That is when God appeared to me again. I asked Him about this, and God assured me that I would have my own son, and not a different legal heir. He promised to make my descendants as numerous as the stars.

Righteousness

It was at this time that God told me how he rewards faith, trusting Him. God told me that because I believed Him, He was legally declaring me ‘righteous’. Righteous is when you only do what is right. I was far from that, as you know. I was unrighteous. I was ungodly, who is the only one who is truly righteous.

Try as I might, I was not righteous in all my ways. God told me that no one could be righteous. We all fall way short of His glory, His righteousness. However, for those who do not try to earn righteousness by what they do, but instead trust Him, He credits righteousness to their account!

Romans 4:5 NIV

However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

God did that for me. I was not righteous, but because I believed His promises, He declared me to be righteous.

It was then that He not only declared me righteous, but He also made a covenant to give the land to my descendants!

Oh how wonderful God, our Creator is. He knows we could never attain righteousness. So He offers to give it to those who will believe Him, and what He says!

Hagar and Ishmael

God made promises to give me a son, but He never said when.

Well, after 10 years of waiting, I was 85 and Sarai was 75. We were not getting any younger. Sarai decided we needed a son before we could not care for him. So she followed the custom of the day to have a surrogate mother, and gave me her handmaid Hagar. I did not want to be pestered, so I went along with this, and sure enough, Hagar became pregnant and gave us a son, Ishmael.

I was thrilled. I had a son. Now God could fulfill his promises!

Mercy and Grace

Once again, I had sinned. You see, I was not patient in waiting for the Lord, and tried to make it possible for God to fulfill His promises. Does God need my help? No. Once again, I thought less of God than one should. God does not need my help. I did not ask Him. No, I just acted in my own wisdom once again.

God showed that to me when He appeared to me, again. I was not 99 years old, and God told me to walk before Him. God said to walk before Him and He would greatly increase my descendants. Then, he told me that my new name was Abraham, father of nations, and Sarai’s new name was Sarah. He then told me that Sarah was going to bear me a son!

Instead of just condemning me for walking in my own wisdom to enable Him to fulfill His promise through Ishmael, God graciously promised to give me a son through my wife!

This was hard to believe! I was 99, and Sarah was 90! We were going to bear a son when past the age of child bearing? That is what God promised, and I believed him!

Promises Fulfilled

It was not long after this that God came to me appearing as a man. Yes, God came appearing as a man to me and others before He truly came as a man, Jesus. We did not know God the Son as Jesus back then. We simply called Him LORD. He did not get the name Jesus until He came as a man, born of Mary.

Well, He came appearing as a man, with two angels. It was this occasion I mentioned earlier.

I made them a meal, and afterward is when the LORD promised that within the year my son would be born! Though we were past the age of child-bearing, nothing is too difficult for the Lord!

That day I also learned more of the Lord’s patience as I talked with him about the destruction of the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. I do not have time now to tell of that.

Where was I? Yes. God taught me that He was the One who could do the impossible, and the One who fulfills His promises in His timing, for His glory!

So, you would think that by now, I am beginning to catch-on to this, and totally trust God, right?

Well, unfortunately, I am a man like you, and though I was growing in my faith, I still struggled with fear.

Abimelek

I moved to an area controlled by a King named Abimelek. At the time, I did not know him, and was afraid. For you see, he like Pharaoh took pretty women for his wives, and once again I was afraid for my life and deceptively called her my sister.

Abimelek took Sarah, but God appeared to Abimelek in a dream and told him to not touch her, and to give her back to me.

The next day, Abimelek returned Sarah to me. Later we became friends, believe it or not.

Mercy and Grace

You would think God would have had enough of my failings, especially when I did the same things over and over again. Living in my fears instead of trusting him, I trusted my own wisdom and deceit to save me.

God was merciful to me and did not give up on me.

God was once again gracious to me, restored my wife, and then allowed us to conceive a son! He was faithful to His promise even though I had been faithless!

Isn’t God so good to us!?!

Isaac

Sarah did conceive, just like God promised, and we had a son, Isaac. Isaac means laughter because it was so ridiculous that we old people should have a son! Everyone laughed with us, and probably at us as we played with and raised out son.

And you better believe I raised Isaac to know our Lord who had given him to me, fulfilling His promises.

I taught him about our failures, sin and the consequence of being separated from God. I taught him about God’s mercy and grace, which are new every morning. I taught him about God’s promises and faithfulness. I taught him about sacrifices to remind us of our sin, and God’s promise to deliver us from sin by the coming perfect sacrifice.

Life was good… No. Life was Great! Isaac was growing up so fast.

And then, God came again.

The Test

God came and told me to take my son—my one and only son of promise, the son I love—Isaac, and to sacrifice him on the mountain God would show me in Moriah.

Sacrifice Isaac? He was precious to me. Yes, sacrificing a lamb that was precious to me was difficult, yet something I did out of obedience, and to remember my sin, the punishment for sin—death, being separated from God, and the promise of the redeemer who would someday deliver us. That was difficult. But sacrifice Isaac? That was impossible to consider. Yet, that is what God commanded. Why? Why would He do this?

Have you ever wondered why God would command, or even allow something to happen to you? I have.

Yet in my years of walking with God, I had learned that partial obedience, was not obedience. I had learned that delayed obedience was not obedience. I had learned that working things out in my wisdom, or trying to help God was not obedience of faith. I had learned that God is faithful. He fulfills His promises.

So, even though it made no sense to kill the son through whom God promised to give me many descendants, more numerous than the dust, more numerous than the stars, I would have to trust and obey. God was planning something.

The very next morning I took my son, two servants, the wood and fire to go Moriah.

That was a long journey. And I could not stop wondering, “What is God doing?”

Finally, I concluded that if God could give a son to one as good as dead, bringing life out of this old nearly dead body, God could bring life to my son after I sacrificed him. You may think I was crazy, but I had learned that nothing is impossible with God!

The Sacrifice

On the third day of our journey, God showed me the mountain where we were to do the sacrifice.

I told the two servants to stay, and handed the wood to Isaac to carry. I told the servants that Isaac and I would go to worship the Lord, and then we would come back. I had grown confident in the Lord’s ability to raise Isaac to life. How else would he give me granchildren?

I took the fire and the knife and we set out.

As we walked along, Isaac asked where the lamb was for the sacrifice. He probably thought this old man forgot! He knew what I had taught him about needing to sacrifice a perfect lamb, yet we did not have one.

I told him, “God himself will provide the lamb.” Little did I know just how true that was!

We arrived at the spot God indicated, and there I built the altar. Then, I did what previously I would have thought unthinkable...

I bound Isaac, laid him on the altar, and was about to sacrifice my son.

God Provides the Lamb

Immediately, before I could swing down the knife, God, the angel of the LORD, or the one you know as Jesus, stopped me, calling out my name!

He told me to not lay a hand on the boy, and how pleased he was in my fear of God and faith. Then he showed me a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. It was a perfect lamb, without blemish. One that was perfect for the sacrifice.

Isaac and I sacrificed that Lamb and praised God for his provision and the lesson in how the Lamb died in Isaac’s place.

The Perfect Sacrifice

It was then that the LORD showed me the future. He showed me Jesus, the one and only son of promise of God, the one who was coming as the Lamb of God to die in the place of all people of the world.

God was using my sacrificing of my one and only son born of promise, as picture to show me how He was going to sacrifice the one and only Son of God for the sins of the world!

Jesus, the perfect God, was going to come into this world being born as a man through a woman. Just as the birth of Isaac was a miracle, so the birth of Jesus was going to be a miracle, something only God could do.

God does not need our help to fulfill His promise to provide salvation from sin!

He was going to send Jesus into the world. Jesus was going to be sinless, perfect, having no sin and having not legal debt from his own sin to pay.

He was the one who being perfect, could truly die in the place of every man, woman and child. NO animal could take the place of man who sinned. But Jesus, the perfect man, could, and would!

The Lord showed me that it was right on that spot where I sacrificed Isaac, on that mountain of the Lord that He would provide Jesus as the one who would take away the sin of the world!

The LORD Will Provide

Hearing that I called that place where we were, “The LORD Will Provide!”

And then he showed me that just as He declared me to be legally righteous because I believed Him, so too, He would declare everyone who believes in Jesus to be legally righteous.

Is not this the most wonderful news!?!

That is why Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he SAW it and was glad.”

I saw it. I wholly believe God who promises and provides.

I believed and God credited it to me as righteousness.

Romans 4:22–25 NIV

This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

My question to you tonight is this. On the mountain of the LORD is has been provided. Jesus did die for our sins. And, as we will celebrate on Sunday, He rose for our justification, or giving us righteousness.

I saw it. I believe it. Have you seen it? Do you believe it?

For all who believe, He credits righteousness to your account because of Christ’s perfect Sacrifice.