Genesis 22

Let's open our Bibles to the Book of Genesis chapter 22. We're only going to cover 1 chapter tonight because it is a particularly challenging chapter, but important chapter as well for us to take the time I think tonight to really kind of think through. So, pray with me as we get into it here. Father, we just want to open our hearts to you tonight and allow the ministry of your Holy Spirit to move in each of us. We want to give you the freedom to speak to our hearts even if what you have to say is hard to hear. Lord, your Word is like looking in a mirror and sometimes we don't really like what we see and yet you show us these things for our own good, that we might bring ourselves before the cross of Christ, that we might allow you to do that work in us Lord to form in us the life of Christ, the character of Christ. We just sang here tonight, Lord, that you are in charge of our lives, that you are working in our lives, that you are protecting and guiding us. We also acknowledge tonight that you are shaping us and bringing about the image of your Son. So we invite you to do that tonight through your Word and we ask it in the name of Jesus, who is our Savior, our soon coming King, amen. Amen. Genesis chapter 22. Before we get into the text of this particular chapter, I want to make a strong point because I think probably a good many of you, if not all of you know what this chapter is about, you've probably already read the, maybe the headline in your Bible chapter. But I want to make a very strong point and that is this, God hates human sacrifice, just in case you are wondering. You know, you might be thinking, well, thank you captain obvious, I think we already knew that. But you know, this chapter is about a test of faith that God laid before Abraham concerning his son and he did it about centering it on the issue of human sacrifice. And there are a lot of people who read through this particular chapter and get all upset because they're, you know, kind of offended at what God did as it relates to the test that He laid before Abraham. I just want you to know going into it, that whatever else you may think about God's methods, I want you to know and understand without question, God hates human sacrifice, all right. Let's just, you know, we just need to, we need to make that point. We know this to be the case because there were times in Israel's history where they made a deep dive into the paganism that was being practiced by their neighbors and it made its way into the nation of Israel and they began to actually practice some of these things. The Ammonites, remember the Ammonites? That was the group that came out of Lot and an incestuous relationship with his daughter, remember that? After Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed? Well, the Ammonites embraced the worship of a pagan deity by the name of Molech and this so called god demanded sacrifice, human sacrifice, particularly the sacrifice of children. And Molech wasn't the only pagan god who demanded the sacrifice of children, or at least or so they were told. And again, as I said, this practice made its way into Israel, yes, even into Israel, even though God had commanded the people to have nothing to do with it. Let me show you a passage from Leviticus chapter 20 on the screen. It says,

That's pretty strong language, but God made it very clear that to do such a thing was literally a capital crime. But you know, Molech wasn't the only pagan deity that demanded human sacrifice. At times, the worship of Baal did the same. The Lord spoke through Jeremiah up on the screen for you. It says this,

Jeremiah 19:4-5 (ESV)

Boy, you know, God is just being very clear about this issue of human sacrifice, there's just no, there's no question about it. And as I mentioned, it not only came into the land of Israel, but it even came in among the kings of Israel. Let me show you 1 Kings chapter 11, it says, 1 Kings 11:7-8 (ESV)

Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, (and look what it says) who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. Well, we know what the sacrifices made to Molech were, they were child sacrifices and so, these things were done. So, having now established the fact that God hates human sacrifice of any kind, let me establish one more fact and I'm going to do this through a series of 3 short verses that I'll put up on the screen here. Psalm 11:5 (ESV)

Proverbs 17:3 (ESV)

Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV)

First is Psalm 11:5, it says, “The LORD tests the righteous…” Proverbs 17:3, “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.” And Jeremiah 17:10 where God says, “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind.” So, in addition to knowing, going into this chapter, that God hates human sacrifice, we also take into this chapter the understanding that God tests the hearts of mankind, alright? Knowing those 2 things is vitally important for you to go into this chapter and understand it properly. So, let's get into it. Verse 1, “After these things (and we’re told in the opening verse what’s going on here) God tested Abraham (that's an important thing to remember, maybe even underlined in your Bible) 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.”” (ESV) Okay, we better stop here because there's already things that we need to talk about, not the least of which is the fact that again, we're told in the opening verse that this is a test. But there are several things that are worth note. And the first is you'll notice that God called to Abraham and his immediate response was, “Here I am,” and this was kind of the way of Abraham and it was something he did. But you know, it wasn't very many chapters ago, that we read about the fall of mankind and God called someone else's name at that time. And you'll remember it was Adam and you'll remember what Adam's response was to the call of the Lord, he hid from God. But what is Abraham's response? “Here I am.” I kind of like that, it just shows a readiness, you know, in Abraham's heart. A readiness to receive, a readiness to listen, to hear what God has to say. The second thing I want you to take note of is the fact that when the Lord speaks to Abraham, He refers to Isaac as, “your only son, Isaac.” Now, as a point of fact, Isaac was not Abraham's only son, he also had a son named Ishmael and you remember that, who was born to a servant girl. But in terms of the covenant promises that had been made to Abraham over the years, this was the only son of Abraham that mattered in that particular case, in that particular vein. This is the one through whom the promises made to Abraham are going to be fulfilled, so in that sense, this is Abraham, I'm talking to you about your only son. The third thing I want you to take note of, is the fact that God acknowledged Abraham's love for his son, did you know that? Did you see that? Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom you love. By the way, can I tell you that this is the first reference to love in the Bible? We have to get all the way to chapter 22. I mean, obviously it's inferred in many places before this, but this is the first time it is outright mentioned and mentioned specifically in light of this test that is being given to Abraham. This is not a small thing, this is not something that God expects Abraham to just slough off. He knows and understands that Abraham adores this boy. This is Isaac, this is laughter. Remember that's what his name means? This is laughter, this is rejoicing and Abraham loved him, which I'm quite sure made this test all the harder to hear. And the fourth thing I want you to notice is that Abraham told, excuse me, the Lord told Abraham to take his son to the land of Moriah, he's to journey there, to that area. Let me put a map up on the screen for you. You can see down in the bottom of that map, the area where Abraham was living at the time, which was Beersheba and he was told to go up to Mount Moriah. Guess what that was also going to be later on? It's going to be Jerusalem.

And that means that this is the very area where there is also a hill, which will be known as Golgotha and that is the very hill where another son would be sacrificed, but in this case it would be the Son of God. Golgotha, also known as Calvary and with that information, we begin to understand a little bit about the spiritual depth of this chapter from the standpoint of understanding that it extends beyond simply the relationship between Abraham and his son, Isaac. And this is a greater statement that is being made as it relates to the one, the son who will be sacrificed and who will be given. Even so, I mean, you can only imagine what's going through Abraham's mind at this time when he receives this word from the Lord. You know, God had already promised Abraham that it was through Isaac that all of the promises that He had made to him were going to be fulfilled and yet here he is now being told to offer his son as a burnt offering. By the way, the way you did a burnt offering was you would slay that which was being offered first, literally kill it, slaughter it, and then you would put it on the fire and offer it as an offering to the Lord, a burnt offering to the Lord. That's what God was asking of Abraham, I want you to make no mistake about it. And before we move on, I think I should probably add this. Don't even try to put this in a modern sort of a understanding, all right? Don't even think about putting this into modern circumstances. God, first of all, you need to know, would never ask anything like this today of one of His children because it's clearly illegal, you know. But you need to also understand, that even though He would never command you to do anything that was illegal, this was not illegal back in Abraham's day. Child sacrifices happened, they were going on during this particular time, so there was no such law that God was commanding Abraham to violate in this particular case, you know. Even so, it just, the mind reels at the thought of getting this sort of a command from God. And it must have seemed to Abraham like God was going back on His promise because He had made this promise to Abraham and said, this will be fulfilled through Isaac and now it seems like He's asking Abraham to kill the promise, it seems like it. Now we know the story, we know that's not what He's asking, but what did Abraham know at this particular point? It's interesting, isn't it? To think about, what would you have done if you were in Abraham's place? Have you ever think about that? Living in that time, living in that era? Knowing what, you know, receiving all of the promises you had received and God comes along and says, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and offer him up to me as a burnt offering on the mountain that

I will tell you about. Oh, good grief. Well, regardless of what you and I may have done, here's what Abraham did. Verse 3,

So they start off on this journey and it's not a quickie either. It says in verse 4, that,

And many people have made a lot about the fact that verse 5 seems very much to be a statement of faith, that something significant was going to happen, which was going to allow Abraham to come back with his son after this whole thing had played out. But you know, again, we don't know what's going through Abraham's mind exactly. But what we are told in verse 6 is that,

Can I get you to pause for just a moment with me on verse 8? I think it's worthy of our contemplation because the statement that Abraham makes in this verse is not only amazing, it's amazingly prophetic, frankly. He said, God will provide for Himself the lamb, God will provide for Himself the lamb. And with that absolutely incredible statement, we are reminded of the words that John the Baptist spoke as he saw Jesus walking nearby when he said,

(John 1:29) And yes, there is a thread of consistency through the entire Bible. God did provide a lamb as the perfect sacrifice for your sins and for my sins, God provided the lamb. But Abraham's statement that he made to his son there also showed his faith in God, a faith that is spoken of and written about much later, in fact, in the Book of Hebrews, let me put it on the screen. Hebrews 11, I'm sure you know this.

And so the author of Hebrews goes so far as to say that Abraham perceived that if he actually was forced to go through with this act of slaying his son, that God could raise him from the dead. It's pretty amazing stuff and I'm sure glad that I've never had any kind of a test in my life that measured up to something like this. But anyway, let's keep reading. Verse 9,

Wow, what an amazing few verses. I mean, suddenly now, this tension that's been building in this passage is settled in our hearts and we know and understand that God never intended Abraham to harm his son. And of course, we were told this from the beginning that this was all a test, but still... But I want you to notice how the Lord said to Abraham, “now I know that you fear God,” did you catch that phrase? That's a really important phrase.

What does it mean to fear God? I, some people, you know, I've mentioned this many times in the past. Many people misunderstand what it means to fear God and they think it a negative thing, they see it as a negative thing. You know, I don't think we should be afraid of God. Yeah, they kind of missed the point. I had a guy say that to me one time after a service, I don't think we should be afraid of God. Well, you don't really understand what the Bible is saying here when it talks about fearing God, because to fear God is to reverence Him, to understand that He is sovereign above all. And the word sovereign means there's no one above Him. There's no Supreme Court above God, He is the Supreme Court. It is to understand and to trust Him implicitly. Do you understand? That's what it means to fear God, to trust Him implicitly. Do you and I always fear God? No, we don't, fact of the matter. Sorry if that, you know, deflates your ego a little bit but you know, we fail in those areas of truly fearing God. It means to obey Him without question and that is why God said, “now I know that you fear God,” now I know. Because that whole point was the issue of obedience without question. How difficult it is to obey God when you don't have the whole story, when you don't know the end of the story. How difficult it is to hear God say something that you just don't get, you don't understand. But can I challenge you this evening, brothers and sisters in Jesus, that, that's going to happen a lot in your Christian life. And if you raise or elevate your understanding above obedience to God’s Word, you're going to find yourself in trouble. And you're going to find yourself beginning to deconstruct this whole idea of what it means to obey God and that's, it's a very dangerous place to put yourself in. You know, somebody reads something in the Bible and they go, well, I just don't get that, I don't understand that and then it begins to affect our doctrine. How many of you understand the Trinity? Don't put your hand up because I'll put mine down, too. None of us understand the Trinity, not one of us. Here's the question, is it revealed in the Bible? Yes, it is. But if you take the position, if I don't understand it, I don't believe it, you're going to be just like your Jehovah's Witness neighbors. When I talk to them about, you know, the Trinity, they'll say, I don't understand that. I get that, I understand that you don't understand that. But are you going to elevate your understanding above the revelation of God's Word? That's the question that all of us have to ask and answer. And what about when God tells you to do something? Are you going to elevate your understanding about what

--- He has told you above what He has told you? I just don't get it, God, so I'm just going to, you know, I'm just going to wait, you know, for you to explain this thing to me. You know, I've noticed that God is not real big on that. I mean, it's my own personal experience, which may not mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I've just noticed, I've just kind of noticed over the years, God's not big on explaining Himself. He didn't say to Abraham, okay, Abe, here's the deal, I'm going to ask you to go to Moriah, which is, you know, about a 3 day journey and I'm going to ask you to sacrifice your son there, but I'm not going to have you go through with it. I'll call you out of this whole, you know, drama just in time, just in the nick of time, so don't worry. How ridiculous would that have been? I mean, what kind of faith does that take? None. Oh, okay. I see, we're going to play this game thing here, you know? No, instead, He didn't give Abraham the end of the story, He just asked him to trust and that's what it comes down to. God asking you and me, do you trust me? Do you trust me? And I hear from people a lot, you know, who'll say, well, I just kind of have trust issues. Oh, I get that, I get that. People, you know, done you wrong in the past, maybe stabbed a knife or two in your back and you know, now you're pretty reticent about the whole idea of trusting anybody, including God. But there comes a point when we have to deal with it or we're not going to grow in our faith. And that, Christians, is why some people plateau at a low level and do not mature, is because they never deal with the question, do I trust God? And am I willing to obey Him unconditionally? Now, there are people outside of Christ who are going to call that blind faith, and they're going to refer to it as a very negative sort of a thing. And in a sense, blind faith, I suppose, is accurate from the standpoint that we don't see the end of what God is asking us to do, or maybe the place where God is asking us to go, or even the result of what He's asking us to talk about to somebody, if He's maybe calling upon you to witness to someone or whatever. He doesn't always give us the end of the story and so in that sense, I suppose there is an element of blindness. But what is not blind, and this is the important thing about it, is our understanding of the character of God. Abraham knew God's character and that is what made the difference when he heard those words, take your son, your only son, whom you love and offer him up to me as a burnt offering. God, I don't get what you've just told me from the standpoint of the information or the command or whatever, but there's one thing I know and that is who you are, I know who you are. And even if I don't understand what you just told me, I trust you. Guys, can I just tell you right ---

--- now, this is where Christian growth takes place, this is the springboard from which Christian growth takes off like a shot. Lord, I trust you because I know you, I know you. Verse 13,

” So isn't that interesting? The very event that we're studying here tonight became a proverb to the Jewish people and they would go on to say in situations where they were trusting in God, they would say, well, you know, hey, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. And that, of course, hearkened to them back to the very story that we're reading here in the Book of Genesis and they were reminded of the fact that God provided at this crucial time in Abraham's life and in this test in his life. But isn't it interesting that this proverb, and it's not in the Book of Proverbs obviously, but it's a proverb, nonetheless, also spoke prophetically of the coming of Messiah. Isn't that interesting? So here the Jews are saying this proverb on a regular basis and they're speaking prophetically of the coming of Messiah. On the Mount of the Lord, He shall be provided, on the Mount of the Lord, Golgotha, Calvary, it was provided, perfectly, powerfully provided and fulfilled on the Mount of the Lord. Verse 15,

Can I call to your attention there, very quickly the promises that are given in this passage of scripture. Notice first of all, I will bless you, secondly, I will multiply your offspring. Thirdly, your offspring shall possess the gates of his enemies and of course that was fulfilled during the time of Joshua, when they came into the land. And then finally, all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice and of course, that is fulfilled through the person of Jesus Christ, our Savior who came out of the Jewish race. And these are all wonderful promises, but you know, they're predicated upon the issue of obedience, did you notice that? He said that, the very last thing we read there was, because you have obeyed my voice. That's it, that's the thing, you know. And I got to tell you, obedience, as we've already, you know, talked about, can be a very difficult thing, very hard thing. You know, it's one thing to obey God when you're waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. You're still waiting to get what He promised you, you know what I mean? And the reason it's a little bit different in the sense at that point is because, there's kind of an understanding that my obedience is necessary in order to get what I want so I'm going to obey because I've been promised this from the Lord and so I want to be sure to be obedient, you know, so I don't mess this thing up, right? But think about this from Abraham's perspective, he's no longer waiting, he got what he was promised in the sense that Isaac is here. I mean, Abraham knew that this was all going to, he wasn't going to live long enough to see any of these ultimate promises fulfilled. He knew that because God had told him this is going to come through your seed. Well his seed is here, Isaac is here, he's no longer waiting for Isaac. And so you see, this was a test of whether or not Abraham would obey God's voice after he received the blessing, the blessing is already received. Once you give a kid, you know, if you're... Let me bring this down to childish levels, you know. If I promise something to a little kid and then I tell him, well, but you've got to do these things that I ask you to do in order to get what I promised you, whatever it might be. He's like, okay, because he wants to get the thing. Well, once I've given him the thing and then I say, now, I want you to do something for me. No way, man, I already got the thing. I already, yeah, I already got, it's in my possession. I don't really need to worry about obeying you anymore because what I wanted to get from you, I've gotten, you with me. Do you understand that in Abraham's situation, what he wanted, what he had been promised, what he desired so desperately was here? Isaac was here and that changes the whole situation. And the question for Abraham now was, would he cling to what God had given to him as something that belonged to him? This is mine now. Or would he obey God and be willing to return Isaac to the Lord? Guys, this is the question, this is what Abraham had to grapple with. In other words, it came down to this simple question. To whom did Isaac belong? You with me? To whom did Isaac belong? One of the reasons we have such a hard time understanding this kind of a story or the test that God put in Abraham's path is not only because we understand it from a parental family relationship, sort of an angle. But we struggle with this sort of a test because we think of our possessions as belonging to us. This is mine, God gave it to me, it's mine, you know? And He has no right to take it away, it's mine. Why did God take away what was mine? I hear this from time to time. People get angry at God because He took something that they thought belonged to them. I got a note from somebody just this last week. My dream job just went away, why would God allow that to happen? You see, that's somebody who is speaking from the perspective of, you know, it was given to me and now it's mine, it's mine. It's not yours anymore, it belongs to me. You know, there's another biblical character who I'm sure you're aware of, who actually did end up losing not just one child, but all of his children: 7 sons and 3 daughters, 10 kids. Lost them all in a single day and that would be a very natural place for anybody to say, why did the Lord take my children? I want you to see what Job did say, it's in Job chapter 1.

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (and we’re told) In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. Do you know, I hear people charging God with wrong all the time. That statement, by the way, “naked I came from my mother's womb,” is a very nice poetic way of saying, when I arrived on the scene, I had nothing and when I depart, I will depart with the same, right. In other words, Job's attitude was, everything I have been given in this life is a gift from God, He gave it and He can choose to take it away. I know that's hard, I know it. You know, the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians talking about this very thing. Let me put this on the screen from 1 Corinthians 4, he asked them a question.

What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, (and the assumption there is that you received it from God, or I should say the inferences that you received it from God. He says,) why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Why do you boast or talk like it's yours or it belongs to you? Why do you talk that way? What do you have that God didn't give you? Nothing. Well, then why do you talk like it all belongs to you? My car, my money, my family, my house, my things, these are my things, I worked hard for these things. Bible says it is God who gives you the ability to earn wealth. Yeah, but they're mine, I worked hard, hard earned money, we call it, right? My hard earned income, it's mine. Like I said, the Word of God helps us to look in the mirror have you noticed that? Let's keep reading, verse 19. “So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.” And he came through this test, he just came through it, you know? And I've been tested, the Lord's tested me on several occasions in my life and I have not done as well, I'll just tell you right now. I have not come through with flying colors like Abraham did but I'm learning to trust Him. The chapter ends in verse 20 and following by saying, “Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: (those of you having kids soon, take note of these names, I love these first two) 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother,…” Don't you love that? Uz and Buz, it sounds like they should have had, like an ice cream company or something, I don't know. Or, maybe they made chainsaws, Uz and Buzz, I don't know. “21…Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, (yeah, I don’t think so) Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” And then, we're told, parenthetically here, that “23 (Bethuel fathered Rebekah.)…” and by the way, that's why we're even being told these things, because Rebecca, as you know, is going to become the wife of Isaac. And that's why the Bible mentions people, is because they're important to the narrative. If they're not important to the narrative, they’re usually not mentioned or if they're mentioned, they’re mentioned in a very passing sort of a way.

--- And then it ends in verse 23 by saying, “…These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. (and, oh by the way, he had a concubine too) 24 Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, (who) bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.” And so there you go. So Genesis chapter 22, like I said, I think it's an important chapter. I think there's some important questions for us to ponder as we think through this chapter. It's important to ask ourselves tough questions about how much we trust the Lord. So let's pray. Father, we do thank you so much for the opportunity tonight to look into the Word of God and to understand that, you know, there are these times in the life of your children where you will lay commands in our path that we don't get. That we can't understand and we can't frankly even make sense of. But we have seen in several passages tonight, that you are a God who tests the heart. And Father, we want to learn to trust you, not blindly, but by looking into your face and knowing your character, knowing that you are a God of love, a God of mercy, a God of tender kindness, who is long suffering, and who is a God of order. Help us, Lord, to know you and to trust you because Lord, all of your promises and all of your Word is contingent on who you are. Help us to trust who you are. We thank you, we praise you. We worship you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King and all God's people said, amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your evening. ---