When God Gives a Test

Genesis 22:1–14 NASB95

Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 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 the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay 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 stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

INTRO: (Did everyone get a communion packet?) Tomorrow is the first day of school for many of our students. Of course, this means returning to a classroom to learn, it means reuniting with friends, meeting new teachers, and, of course, taking tests. How many of you like tests? There are all sorts of tests in the academic world- T/F, Multiple Guess, Essay, etc. And these tests all have a purpose- at least in theory. It’s not simply so you can have a grade, but so that the instructor and the student both have a realistic view of what the student understands about the given subject.

We looked a little bit at Abraham a few weeks ago, and today we look back to him one final time. Verse 1 tells us what this section of Scripture is about- God tested Abraham.

Now, you are likely familiar with this passage, so you know that God did not have Abraham report to his local testing center where he would need a calculator and 2 #2 pencils. No, this was a test of a different caliber.

As we walk through our text, we need to ask questions: Why did God test Abraham? What was accomplished? What did Abraham take from this event? What can you and I learn from this?

All of these and more are good questions to ask. I hope that in our time together we answer a number of these questions, and as we leave this building this morning, we are challenged and encouraged in our faith.

So, if you picked up a bulletin, I invite you to follow along in your sermon guide. As always, I encourage you to dive in deeper this week by taking the discussion questions to your life group or family table. Let’s learn together, When God Gives a Test, 3 takeaways from God testing Abraham.

The first takeaway from Abraham’s test is that:

God’s Test May Be An Invitation To Worship (1-5)

Now, we need to remember the greater context- God promised this child to Abraham and Sarah. They had longed for this child so much that, in their impatience, they attempted to take matters into their own hands. This led to the birth of Ishmael through Hagar, the maid of Sarah. Later, in God’s timing, Isaac was conceived by Sarah, fulfilling God’s promise and the long-standing desires of Abraham and his wife.

And, so we get into Gen. 22 and we see that God calls out to Abraham (v. 2) and tells him to bring Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering before the Lord.

Ok, so we need to recognize that God is not demanding or advocating human sacrifice here. Let me repeat, God is not in favor of human sacrifice. He commands against this in Lev. 18:21, and Deut. 12:31. This is a test… Abraham doesn’t know that this is a test, however.

So this is where you might expect Abraham to argue with the Lord or act appalled or something. But he didn’t do that. He could have tried to find a substitute sacrifice, or ignored God’s call all together. But, he didn’t do that. Instead, he obeyed.

As we look at this, let me point out how this test, and perhaps the tests in your lives right now, might be an invitation to worship.

God determines what acceptable worship is.

He didn’t call for a ram, goat, or calf. He didn’t call for a drink offering or a song offering. He didn’t ask for a Abraham’s money or any other possible substitute. No- God called for Isaac to be brought as a burnt offering.

Can you imagine if we thought we knew best how to worship God? - What to offer as sacrifices and offerings?

We’d offer God the scraps- the last fruits or leftovers of our work instead of the best.

We’d offer him only what was convenient or what suited our personal tastes. We’d either end up like the Pharisees or like the idolators. We’d offer based on a cold calculation or as a perversion of our lusts.

BUT GOD tells us how we ought to worship- in spirit and in truth- with our whole lives offered as a living sacrifice, pleasing and acceptable to God. Sometimes that means making a choice between God and an idol.

Authentic worship is demonstrated when we choose God over what we value most in the world.

God might be asking you to lay on the altar that which you hold most dear on earth. Like Abraham, you might have prayed for and longed for a child, a job, a position, or whatever. And God is asking you to choose Him even over that answer to your prayers.

It is only when we lay down everything else, that we can truly exalt our Lord. It’s when nothing else is competing for our adoration. And it’s not to say that God will necessarily take away that which He calls you to lay on the altar. Abraham did not lose Isaac. But God requires that we have no idols, nothing that robs him of the glory due to Him.

ILL - We can contrast this call with the Rich Young Ruler in the NT. He came to Jesus, wishing to follow Him, and Jesus told him to sacrifice his wealth. But the man went away sad because his love for money was greater than his love for the Lord.

For Abraham, he took the steps of obedience because he knew that the Lord was worthy of every offering he could bring- even the ones that were the most precious. His words to his helpers underscore this in v.5 (READ) This test was an opportunity for him to honor Yahweh, an invitation to worship.

Discuss: Is there anything in your life that you would refuse to lay on the altar in worship of God? How do good things become idols?

Next, I’d like to point out that

God’s Test Often Affirms True Belief (6-12)

ILL: In Haiti, our missionary friend Fred Wall tells us that you can tell what a person really believes when they are really sick. Many who have professed Christ still call the Voodoo witch doctor to come and do a chant as they near death. What does that tell you about their true belief?

Here, we see that God wanted Abraham to act out his belief so that he would have the confidence in his profession. God knew Abraham’s heart. But until he was really put to the test, all talk of faith is hypothetical. This was far from hypothetical. I mean, the boy was tied up and laying on the altar and Abraham had the knife in his hand and had drawn his arm back… yeah this was intense!

Remember what we said about Abraham earlier in our study- what made him so great is that he simply believed God. Here, he demonstrated this belief. Abraham did not know that the angel would intercede and stop him from carrying out this sacrifice. He didn’t know whether God had other plans or if God had simply decided to penalize him for his actions regarding Hagar.

But what he did know is that God was worthy of his allegiance and obedience. IT was God’s authority over his life- Abraham was determined that it was THY Kingdom, not my kingdom.

Often times I read the stories in the Voice of the Martyrs Magazine. I try to imagine what it must be like to have to go through some of their ordeals- their families abused or tortured. Their homes destroyed. Their very lives’ taken. But then I think- how confident they must be in their salvation!

This test was an opportunity for Abraham to express his own confidence in God. He trusted God more than his own opinion. He trusted God more than his own instinct- Look, I can’t even imagine what it took for Abraham to get to this point. He was willing to sacrifice his own son because, even though he loved Isaac, even though Sarah would be very very angry, even though this seemed wrong, Abraham trusted God. He knew that God was infinitely good and whatever He had in store was better than all of this. Perhaps he would raise Isaac from the dead, as the writer of Hebrews suggests.

It very well might be like a book title I saw by Stan Toler that read “God has never failed me, but he’s sure scared me to death a few times”! I haven’t read it, but it sounds interesting.

In the NT, Jesus tells of this kind of dedication

Luke 14:26 NASB95

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

He is not speaking of hatred as we might thing, but instead the level of surety and devotion that He requires is that of Abraham.

When God is testing Abraham, it is an opportunity for him to worship God and to affirm his true belief.

Discuss: How confident are you in your faith? Do you struggle to trust God when things don’t make sense?

Finally, we see that

God’s Test Reveals His Own Provision (13-14)

In mercy and love, God not only stopped Abraham from carrying out this sacrifice, but God Himself provided the substitutionary sacrifice in order for Abraham and Isaac to worship. The test now could be celebrated.

Although God deserved Abraham’s devotion and could have rightfully required the sacrifice of Isaac, His own love provided a way that preserved Isaac’s life and enhanced the worship and confidence of Abraham.

Abraham named that place - “The Lord will provide” and we see that this rings true through the God’s redemption plan for humanity. You see, although he spared Abraham’s son, God would not withhold his own Son when the time came to place him on the altar. The wooden cross tied to his back, just as the wood was strapped to Isaac walking toward the spot where worship would be offered before the Lord.

It was my sin and your sin that required such a sacrifice. That punishment and wrath that we deserved, but the voice of the Lord called out saying “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those that are lost!”

Jesus Christ was the necessary and adequate sacrifice in order to purchase our salvation from sin… He is, as John the Baptist proclaimed, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

Church, in Christ alone, we have salvation. Therefore, we must lay everything down before God- our idols, lusts, our whole life in complete surrender to Christ’s rule and reign. He has secured our redemption, and thus we can be confident as we approach the throne of Grace, singing “What can wash away my sins, Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”

As we prepare to close our time, I am going to ask you who have been saved and baptized to join with me in partaking of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, where we remember the provision that God made for us on that old cross.

Before we do that, I want to ask you to spend just a moment in prayerful reflection- the music playing softly…Scripture tells us that we must examine ourselves and repent of any known sins so that we may take of this in a worthy manner. As the Spirit leads, I invite you to confess your sins before God this morning, and accept His provision for your guilt.

As Paul writes in

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NASB95

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

Discuss: Have you experienced God’s testing? What have you learned from Abraham that applies to your times of testing?