Abraham Justifies His Faith--Genesis 22

   In Genesis we have the familiar story of the testing of Abraham.  Between Genesis 12 and 21, God had visited Him many times, making a covenant with him and blessing him with a son in his old age.  God had promised Him that Isaac would be the heir of the Promise.  All of God’s promises to Abraham concerning the land of Canaan and a multitude of descendants were to be fulfilled in Isaac, but in Chapter 22, God visits him again and gives him a command that he could hardly believe.  God commands him to take his precious son, Isaac, and to sacrifice him. 

     How does Abraham respond?  Does he try to reason with God, insisting that sacrificing Isaac would be a step in the wrong direction?  Does he plead for the life of His son?  No, he simply obeys.  He obeys quickly.  He awakes early in the morning and sets out for the mountains. 

    He gathers the wood and fire, and he retrieves the knife that would slay his son.  After walking for three days, they finally arrive at the location that God had chosen—Mt.  Moriah, the very mountain where the Temple would be built years later.  Leaving the servants behind, he and Isaac climb the mountain. 

    Isaac, a smart boy, has a realization.  “We have the wood and the fire,” he says, “but what about the lamb?”

    Abraham told him the only thing that he knew for certain.  “God will provide the lamb,” he tells Isaac.  Abraham had been through quite a bit in the past couple of decades, but there was one thing that he knew for certain: God would provide.

    Finally, they arrive and the sacrifice is prepared.  We are not told that Isaac fought his father.  No, He submits to God’s will, just as Abrahahad; and right as the knife was about to fall, a voice calls out to Abraham, commanding him to stop and not to harm the boy.  He had passed the test!  A ram would take Isaac’s place. 

    Well, what can we learn from this story?  These events actually happened, and yet God was directing them in His Providence to illustrate to us the beautiful truths of the Gospel.  The story of Isaac’s near-sacrifice is one of the earliest and most exact pictures of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice, which took place only a few mountain peaks away.

    I have five lessons to offer from this passage.  Firstly, notice Abraham’s response to the voice of God.  “Here I am!” he cries.  He is attentive to God.  He waits on God’s direction.  He is eager to know and to do God’s will. 

    This brings to mind Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 6:8.  When God asked, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah responded with, “Here am I.  Send me.” 

    It also reminds us of Samuel’s attentive reply in 1 Samuel 3.  When God called out to Samuel, he replied, “Speak, for your servant hears.”  We must be like Samuel, Isaiah, and Abraham.  As we read God’s Word and fellowship with Him in prayer, we must seek to know and to do His will.  We must be open to His Spirit’s leading.

    Secondly, when we feel God’s call upon our lives, whether it is to a ministry, a job, or simply a random act of love, we must obey quickly.  Abraham’s vision most likely came in the middle of the night.  Abraham rose early the next morning and set off to fulfill his Lord’s command.  This is how we must obey.  He who obeys fully obeys quickly.  Strong faith has no delay.  We must not let doubt interfere with God’s will. 

    Thirdly, notice why it is that Abraham is said to have passed the test.  Verse 16 says that he did not withhold his only son.  The most precious of earthly concerns, even the child of the promise, was not more important than God.  Obedience to God was His #1 priority. 

    Despite the inner turmoil that certainly plagued Abraham, he remained determined to obey the voice of God.  He would hold nothing back, not even his family.  We too must obey God with such resolve.  Worldly possessions and loved ones must not become barriers to obeying and trusting God, but must be used and enjoyed in ways that glorify Him. 

    Matthew Henry said, “God, by his word, calls us to part with all for Christ,-all our sins, though they have been as a right hand, or a right eye, or an Isaac-all those things that are competitors and rivals with Christ for the sovereignty of the heart (Lu. 14:26); and we must cheerfully let them all go. God, by his providence, which is truly the voice of God, calls us to part with an Isaac sometimes, and we must do it with a cheerful resignation and submission to his holy will.”

    Fourthly, notice what Abraham names the place.  He calls it Yahweh-Jireh—Yahweh will provide.  The word Jireh properly means to see, but it carries more meaning here.  The idea is that God is watchful over His people.  He sees and cares about our needs.  He is concerned and He will provide! 

    God will provide.  Do we believe that?  Do we trust in that?  Certainly Abraham did.  Hebrews 11:19 gives us a clue as to why Abraham was so staunch in his obedience.  We read, “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead…”

    Abraham trusted in God’s character.  God had made promises and He would keep them.  There was just no two ways about it.  If Isaac was the child of the promise, which he certainly must be, then God must have a plan to raise him from the dead.  Abraham didn’t know how God would provide, but he didn’t have to.  He just knew that He would and he trusted in God’s plan.

    Fifthly and finally, notice God’s provision in Verse 13.  “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns…”  Just as Abraham had told Isaac, God had provided the sacrifice.  This ram pictures our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate provision for God’s people.  The ram was caught by his thorns, so that he remained a spotless sacrifice, just as Jesus was. 

    Our God is a generous and benevolent Father.  He called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but He stopped him before the deed was done.  God, however, offered up His son all the way to death on the cross.  Just as Abraham did not hold back his son from God, so God did not hold back His son from us.  He gave Him to us so that we might live.  He sent Him into the world two millennia ago so that we might believe and be saved.

    “Behold, the Lamb of God,” cried out John the Baptist, “who takes away the sin of the world.”  Yahweh has provided.  That is His nature.  That is what He does.  He has provided and He will always continue to do so.