Not Your Average Father-Son Trip (2)

Genesis 22:1–19 ESV

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 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. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 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.” 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. 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?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. 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. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 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.” And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon Title: Not Your Average Father-Son Trip

           Brothers and sisters in Christ, this evening we have the opportunity to enter in to one of the most intense stories in Scripture, to wrestle with a passage that hits a nerve when we think about the goodness, grace, and love of our God. My hope is to look at the person of Abraham and the faith given to him by God. Then to consider God’s providence, the characteristic of God that hits Abraham the most from the experience. Finally to think about how God’s providence encounters with us today. 

           We begin with Abraham, who we are introduced in Genesis 11, but really meet him in chapter 12. Abraham did not have an easy life, at least not during the time that we associate with retirement. When he was 75 years old when God calls him to leave everything he knows behind. God tells him he has big plans for him, but not just for him, for the future of humanity. Abraham sets out, and throughout the next 10 chapters, we watch Abraham listen to God, follow him, obey whatever he is told. He encounters challenges, but God also speaks promises and covenants to him. God told Abraham and Sarah that a son would be born to them in their old age, and when Abraham was 100 years old that happened. They have raised Isaac, and it is likely that he was a teenager or in his 20s when we get to this account. Abraham has been faithful to God and he knows his voice.  When we come to the passage before us this evening, and we read Abraham responds to this voice calling his name, ready to listen, he knows who is speaking to him.

“Take your son, go away, and sacrifice him where I will show you.” / That’s the core, but not exactly how God presents his message. God pulls at the heart of this father: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac and go. Sacrifice him as a burnt offering.” Let that sink in----This does not fit how we expect things to be with God! This is the son that Abraham and Sarah never thought would happen, but God promised and gave him to them. This is the son that is supposed to be carrying out the covenant for all people. Why must God tell Abraham in such a personal way, in such a way that cuts to his heart: “your son, you only son, whom you love, Isaac.” 

We don’t know how much sleep Abraham got that night or the nights following as he traveled, all we are told is, “Early the next morning he got up and loaded his donkey.” Abraham receives and obeys God’s message. That morning he wakes up his servants and Isaac, he cuts the wood, packs his knife, and prepares the fire pot that contains what will burn the sacrifice. When we think of a father-son trip or any type of trip away, we try to plan well, to know exactly where we’re going, what we’re doing, but I imagine Abraham going around his camp, saying “Let’s go, God has called us to worship on a mountain.” Maybe he tells his wife that they are going to be gone for about a week, but I am not sure he would have been able to look her in the eye. 

They set off for three days walking to Moriah; if we were to walk for three days from here along the lakeshore, we would get past South Haven, past Benton Harbor and St. Joe, and probably get around the Warren Dunes. You can see the servants and Isaac talking, laughing, intrigued by this last minute trip; Abraham is with them, but they could probably tell something is on his mind. He hasn’t told them the whole purpose behind their trip, he doesn’t reveal that the most loved of them is going to be sacrificed. Those of you who are parents and grandparents probably cannot even imagine what those three pain-staking days were like. We can only imagine that Abraham may have been calling out to God with his heart and mind to take this away, maybe he even asks God to take him instead. 

When God shows Abraham, in verse 4, where exactly they need to go, they leave the servants behind and continue on, Abraham promises that they will come back after they worship. It is hard to wrap our minds around his statement of “we will return,” that multiple individuals will return. Maybe it shouldn’t be read into, it could have just been a pleasantry, something that needed to be said, but maybe just maybe Abraham speaks from faith. When we read about this account in Hebrews 11:17-19, we read, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” After all that Abraham has lived through over the last 35-50 years, after all of the inner turmoil of this trip, God had developed such a faith in Abraham that he trusted God to work miraculously. If God had called him to sacrifice the son who he loved and who was to continue the covenant promises, then God would resurrect, would bring Isaac back to life. 

Abraham and Isaac set out, just the two of them, after Abraham has placed the wood on the back of his son, the sacrifice-to-be. While I believe that Abraham comes to that conviction before they arrive and before they split off from the servants, it could not have been easy when he hears his son say, “Father.” He responds the same way he had responded to God, “Heneneh,” “Yes,” “Here I am.” His son asks a soul-crushing question, “We have the wood, we have the fire, where is the lamb?” They had prepared and brought what they would need, and Isaac knows that dad could not have come this far and actually have forgotten the offering. Abraham says as calmly as possible, “God will provide the lamb,” and they continue to walk and climb.

When they get there, Abraham builds the altar, he arranges the wood, and then that moment comes, he bound up Isaac. Abraham places him on the altar, on the wood, and then he takes the knife in his hand. It all happens so quickly; no dialogue, no struggle, we do not read that Abraham knocked Isaac out so he wouldn’t be able to fight back, no explanation of how it happens. There are two emphases that I think are helpful in looking at this scene. First, this is the heart of the test, the exercise, the training that God was putting Abraham through is that of faith, of his conviction, and of his love. / Abraham is obedient to what God has called him to, but I think in the lack of explaining in detail what happened on that mountain, we can see that Abraham had passed his convictions and his faith down to his son. I am sure there was an explanation, there was an intimate father-son moment that is not recorded here in which Abraham told his son what God had called him to do, and not only is Abraham willing to submit to God and trust in his providence, but his son trusts him, and shows a remarkable trust that this is from God. 

The second emphasis is we need to remember that this is a sacrifice; it’s not just a father meaninglessly killing his son. / There would have been a reverence in that moment, an attitude of worship and fear in God. Abraham was totally committed even when he could not make complete sense of what was happening, even when God’s command seemed completely irrational and in conflict with his promise.  Were we able to watch this, I think we would still see tears rolling down Abraham’s cheeks and beard, Isaac bound but shaking on top of the rock and wood, Abraham’s hand, arm, and body trembling as he picks up that knife. What God had asked for in asking Abraham to sacrifice his son was to give him up, to dedicate him, to give his life and existence to God. No matter how much comfort came to Abraham in faith and the amazing hope of God performing a resurrection, this was still a sacrifice of his own blood and family. 

The voice of the angel of the Lord breaks the tension, “Abraham! Abraham!” And again he replies, “Here I am.” “Don’t do it, don’t lay a hand or do anything, because God has seen you have not withheld your son.” This man of God, this father, Abraham has been called upon again, and in that startling, intense moment, a supernatural grip had to have come upon Abraham’s arm so that knife goes nowhere near his son. As one commentator puts it, “Isaac was as good as dead,” and as Hebrews 11:19 says, “figuratively speaking, Isaac was received back from the dead.” The moment that would take place between father and son, between humanity and God, when Abraham takes his son off of that altar, uses that knife to cut the ropes binding him. Isaac now able to know full well and comprehend that this was a command from God, we can picture him joining his father in an embrace. 

 In his commentary on this passage, John Calvin writes that Abraham must have “come to the conclusion that the God with whom he knew… could not be his adversary; although he did not immediately discover how the contradiction [of God’s current command and enduring promise] might be removed, by hope, [he reconciled them]; because he was persuaded that God was faithful, he left the unknown issue to Divine Providence.”  God is satisfied in seeing Abraham’s faith and whole-hearted obedience, and God satisfies the offering by providing that ram caught in the thicket. To think about all that has happened, Abraham trusts God more than ever. Abraham is not angry but rather so overcome with thanks and joy in the outcome of the trial that he still makes a sacrifice, and over that place, he puts the name: “the Lord Will Provide.” 

Brothers and sisters, what a radical conviction we see from Abraham! The account begins with this expression of God putting Abraham to a test, and Abraham’s faith verifies what God expects of him. What’s interesting though is what Abraham concludes, after all that has happened, he doesn’t name the place “The Lord will Test,” but rather he considers all that God has done for him throughout his life, he considers the birth and promises that have been made with his son, Isaac, who he loves. He considers that God put that ram there on that day at that time that God would receive a sacrifice of thanks and he names it, “The Lord Will Provide.” / I said this is a text to wrestle with, because read alone we could reach the conclusion that God seems to train his people through cruel exercises; Abraham though sees God as Provider, he see the complexity of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness. The Hebrew in verse 14 which we translate as God will provide, can also mean that God “will see to,” for our understanding, he has eyes on what is happening and will meet whatever needs there are for his people and for his creation. 

Lord’s Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism gives us language to use in regards to God’s providence, and it picks up on many of the details we have looked up. I want a take a moment to read the two questions and answers, we find there. 

27Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

28 Q. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?

A. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love.  All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

God’s providence is his power by which he upholds and he rules in such a way that everything happens for a reason, everything has purpose and nothing good or bad can happen by chance. The Catechism then teaches that we should have patience, we should be thankful, and that we can have good confidence because nothing that happens separates us from God’s love. This is one of the doctrines that we heartily agree with, particularly as Reformed believers, but it is also one that may or may not bring comfort in certain situations. For Abraham, that God would provide, according to his faith and understanding of life as a whole, that God would put an end to the suffering and the stress that the potential sacrifice of his son was causing him as well as to put a ram there so that a sacrifice could still be made to God… that was comforting for him! For others though, God’s providence, his rule over those things which we see as good and those things that we see as painful, and this language of “all things come to us from his fatherly hand,” is tough, is comfortless. We could say that God’s providence doesn’t always fit with our common understanding of grace.

How can we reconcile this then?  Better yet, how does God reconcile them for us? We attest things happen for a reason, there are things happening in our lives and around the world that people see, and wonder not just how this doctrine of providence could be true, but how could a God who is in control allow such devastation to occur, such pain to be experienced? Brothers and sisters, we recognize the brokenness that is part of our world, the brokenness that we introduced with our sin, which without help strains our relationship with God.  Brokenness distracts us from giving all we are in terms of our heart, in terms of the way we interact and relate to others, how we work and spend our leisure. 

When trials and adversity come our way, however, we can look in faith. We can look as people who have an eternal hope in God and his ability to provide what we need. It’s this faith and hope given by God that in the most devastating of circumstances; God can see us and can see to give us what he knows we stand in need of. That’s the precious hope that we have as believers, that we can take to heart and live with the assurance of. We will face struggles in this life but God can overcome then, God is the source and giver of our patience, thankfulness, and confidence as we read in Answer 29. We recognize not just struggles that we face can be tough, but also the commands, the things God calls us to may cause an inner conflict for us when we think of God’s will to bless but obedience may bring hardships. We can join Abraham in believing that God’s promises, the end, will come about just as he says they will, even when the means seem to conflict, seem to divert from the plan.

As we wrap up tonight, I feel it’s necessary to share the good news, to share the ultimate sacrifice that God provided, not just as something tacked onto the end but because it completes what providence is all about and gives us insight to consider in terms of Abraham and Isaac. God the Father sent his Son, Jesus, on a trip, a trip into our world. He lived, he taught, he brought healing while he was among us, and then a time came when he realized that his death by crucifixion was coming close. Isaac in our story asked, “Where is the lamb?” and maybe that’s when he started to realize what was going on; but Jesus knew what was going on and he prayed, “Father, take this cup, but may your will be done.” Jesus, the perfect Son, loved by the Father, he carried the wooden cross and then he was nailed on top of it. As father Abraham told his servants, we will worship and return, so too when Jesus was crucified, when he himself was the substation for all of us who believe, he returned in the resurrection. He was the final and only sacrifice, the one God has provided that our sins and our sufferings, our inadequacies are washed away. His descendants, you and I, co-heirs, brothers and sisters, adopted sons and daughters of God receiving the blessing of forgiveness and one day the possession in the kingdom that is coming. Whether you’re hearing that for the first time tonight or you’ve heard it every week for as long as you can remember, trust in what God has called you to, be assured of his control over everything and that he gives us what we need, for body and for soul, he has and will continue to provide for all who come before him. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.