9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Genesis Review:
Weeks 1-3 – Genesis 1-11 - Prehistory of God’s Covenant
Creation (Genesis 1-2): God created purpose out of the void. All of Creation is God’s temple. Man and Woman are priests in God’s temple.
The Fall (Genesis 3-11) and the Flood (Genesis 6-9): Sin entered the world through humanity’s choice. Sin grows until it takes hold of all society and finally perverts people's image of and relationship with God. Having been entirely perverted from God’s original purpose, it has returned to a state of void. God uses his servant Noah to build a gigantic boat on dry land, in which mankind and the animal kingdom are saved as God recreates his temple as he originally intended. Still, humans no longer recognize the authority of God, Creation as God’s temple, and humanity’s place as priests made in God’s image. Humans instead elevate their own authority, build their own temples, make gods in their own image, and coerce their created gods to fulfill their needs. This was the tower of Babel.
Weeks 4-6 – Genesis 12-25 –Abraham and Covenant
Before God solved the Eden problem (sin) he was determined to solve the Babel problem (a perverted view of his identity). In his covenant with Abram, Abram sacrificed his family, gods, land, and inheritance. In return God began to reveal himself in humanity through Abram’s life, and later through Abram’s descendants, and finally through Abraham’s descendants, Jesus. Abram was blessed, Abram was a blessing, and through Abram, God revealed himself.
The story of Abraham shows God once again inviting humanity to cooperate in his eternal purposes for Creation. God patiently shares his plans for mercy, judgment, blessing, and healing with Abraham, and uses Abraham’s words and deeds to further reveal himself. At Abraham’s best, he reflects the nature of the God of Covenant. At his worst, God steps in to graciously reveal himself and bless the world even through Abraham’s mistakes. Throughout his life, Abraham comes to know better the God who called him to his covenant life of blessing.
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We now turn to Genesis 22, One of the last and most dramatic events near the end of Abraham’s life. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. His response and God’s response to him reveals to us a great deal about the nature of faith.
On Abraham and Faith – Genesis 12-25
Genesis 12:1-4
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
Abraham's examples of faith in action demonstrated a radical break from the status quo, a departure from the familiar. Starting with Genesis 12 and continuing through his entire story, Abraham is consistently shown as being challenged by God to walk into the unfamiliar and the unknown.
Faith doesn't necessarily require a tenacious clinging to one's past. Faith in action includes an exploration, even a wrestling with the real and the true and the transcendent. Faith needn't exist in a single moment or decision or change if mind. A life of active faith may continue to grow and explore and develop and change, even to the degree of leaving behind prior assumptions, beliefs and practices when one discovers they are on the wrong path.
Faith in action does not need to include a strident clinging to the old and traditional. On the contrary, Abraham was asked by God to leave his old traditions behind. Faith in action is an exploration. It is a journey of discovery. It is a cooperation with the God who wants to be revealed in and through humanity, and will willingly wait lifetimes to do so.
Faith needn't fear change. Faith needn't fear a challenge. We place our faith in what is true, therefore it is not our faith, but the truth that is tested. If a challenge to that which we place our faith in reveals that we are wrong, faith is glad to change paths and be guided closer to the truth in belief and action.
Genesis does not reveal a story of Abraham developing a set of theological beliefs over his lifetime. Genesis says that Abraham believed God. He put his trust fully in God's word and God's direction. Over his entire life, God participates with Abraham in significant revelatory events. Abraham is tested. Abraham is judged. Abraham is blessed. Abraham intercedes. Through it all, God is pleased to be revealed more fully in Abraham's life with each step.
Abraham has come a long way since this call in Genesis 12. He has judged, and he has seen God’s judgment. He has challenged God’s judgment, and he has challenged God’s mercy. He has acted as an intercessor, praying for blessing, healing, and mercy for those outside of God’s covenant.
Most dramatically, he has fathered a son through his wife’s servant, seen God bless that son, and seen God reject that son as the son of the covenant.
He has seen the terms of his covenant with God grow and change. The provisions of his blessing and the consequences of his obedience have become more clear as he comes to know the God of his covenant. God promised him a son in his old age. Having rejected the son he fathered by his own efforts, he provided a son by a truly miraculous pregnancy through his wife, Sarah. This was the son of his covenant. Through this son, born twenty-five years after God called Abraham in Genesis 12, God promises to continue his covenant and bless the entire world.
Genesis 22:1-2
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
Isaac is more to Abraham than just a son. In Isaac, Abraham has seen the fulfillment of God’s promise to him. For the promise of Isaac, Abraham left his own country and family in Genesis chapter twelve. In the ten chapters since, he has tried to manipulate his circumstances in order to fulfill God’s promise to him in his own strength. God revealed that the son achieved from his own efforts was not the son he promised. Abraham and Sarah have agonized for years over her barrenness, and have waited for years before and after God’s promise for a child of their own. Throughout this time, God has been patiently revealing his nature to Abraham and Sarah, as they witness his mercy, his judgment, and his redemption. Now all they have hoped and dreamed for, their future and the promise of God for a lasting nation, is in Isaac alone.
All obstacles have been removed between Abraham and God's promised covenant seed at the beginning of this chapter. Lot is gone. Hagar is gone. Isaac is born. Boundaries of Abimelech's relationship are understood. Ishmael has been sent away. It’s all or nothing on Isaac. At this point, the test would not be to show that God can overcome obstacles to his promise. He has already shown this is true.
For Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is to obediently place before God all God has ever promised to him. It was for the promise of Isaac that Abraham first sacrificed to obey God. Now, it is for God that he will willingly sacrifice the promise. If Abraham were to refuse YHWH his son at this point, it would show that Abraham was moved more by the promise than by God himself. God gave the promise. God was the one to fulfill it. Abraham's faith was in God, not the promise or the hope.
Genesis 22:8
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
Notice Abraham's repetition of "my son" throughout the chapter. He does not try to distance himself from Isaac in any way.
Abraham speaks in faith about the sacrifice. He believes that God will provide a way somehow. His promise is true, no matter how the circumstance may appear.
Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring[b] will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
Genesis 22:9-12
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
The story is explicit in its declaration of God's purpose in this chapter. God did this for his own benefit. God wanted to know by experience that Abraham was motivated by him, not by what he could do for him.
Without this story, every other motivation of Abraham up until this point and after could possibly be interpreted as being for his own gain. This story makes it absolutely clear that his faithful obedience is based in the character of the God he has come to know. This is the purest moment of faithful obedience demonstrated in Abraham's life. He belongs to God alone, no matter the circumstance or consequence.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God's promise to us is eternal life in heaven. When we recall the gospel of Jesus, we often consider the good news in terms of all it can do for us, for all we can gain. Of course, the New Testament writers are clear that we are motivated by another city that is not yet. Hebrews 11 and 12 say we run in faith, believing in joy that our reward in the next life will be worth everything it costs in this life.
Imagine there’s no heaven. (It's easy if you try). Imagine living for today.
Would you still live for God if his promises were removed? Would you still give your life to follow in the footsteps of Jesus if God told you your obedience was for his sake alone, and you would receive no reward? Would your life on earth be different if you knew that you only had this temporal existence in which to honour and serve God? How would you live for today?
There is a potential danger in a misunderstanding of the Christian truth of life eternal. Though there is truly a sense in which this world is not our home, God has not called us out of it. Jesus says explicitly in John 17 of his disciples that he will not take them out of the world. Instead, he has sent us into this world as salt, as light, as sowers of seeds of his kingdom here and now. The good news Jesus told his disciples to share in Matthew chapter 10 was that people should repent because the kingdom was near. He also said the kingdom had already come, and that the kingdom was within us.
This world is our home. We are not just passing through.
So do we live as Jesus did here and now, and suffer all the consequences of doing so only for some future reward? For whose benefit do we follow in the footsteps of Jesus?
Such questions may challenge our motivations for religious faithfulness.
Besides heaven, these challenges also fly in the face of a false Christian religion that would make temporal blessing our motivation. However Abraham’s story may challenge our understanding of the fear of God, it certainly leaves no room whatever for a Christian God who doles out worldly wealth and privilege in exchange for the faithfulness of his followers. God promises no way out to Abraham. Abraham believes that God will keep his promises, but it is not for his promises that he is motivated to act in this story. It is for the fear of God.
Jesus said that following him meant taking up a cross. It means sacrifice. It means a death of ourself, our own desires and motivations, completely exchanged for a life motivated by God’s passions. How would we respond if all was taken from us? What if all we hoped and dreamed for was gone? Our wealth? Our health? Our hopes of blessing from God?
Job found himself in that place. As far as he knew, there was nothing in his life or future that he could point to as a benefit of serving the Lord. Still, he called God his God. “Though he slay me,” says Job when all is taken away, “yet will I hope in him”. (Job 13:15)
This same faith is displayed by three Israelites during the Babylonian exile. The king of Babylon makes a gigantic idol, and commands that all the people bow down and worship it.
Daniel 3:16-18
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
This is what it means to fear the Lord. To follow God because he is God. This is the purest faith. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego know their God, and will not bow not because God will save them, but only because he can, and he is their God. Job will trust in God even if all God has ever given him is taken away. Abraham believes and obeys not because of what he can gain. All he can gain is laid on the altar for the sake of his faith in the God he has come to know is good and true.
We are fortunate to have a hope greater than this.
Hebrews 11:39-12:3
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
We have a hope and a future in Jesus. His promise is sure. His covenant is marked in his own blood.
At the sound of the blood of Abel calling from the ground, God turned his face and approached his murderer with justice and mercy. Abel’s blood was spilled in rage and jealousy. God responded swiftly, and his brother the murderer found himself both banished and marked for his crime.
Our brother, Jesus Christ, died unjustly at the hands of evil men. It was for our sin that he went willingly to the cross. Our hands are stained as red as Cain’s. Jesus blood cries out for justice for this crime. But for us, he receives the banishment. His voice cries to God in anguish for being abandoned. The mark is placed on us, the mark of Christ that says that we will not be judged for our sin. His blood was shed so ours doesn’t need to be.
So now, we walk in faith in the promise of God’s completed work in us. We have heaven ahead, and his presence with us guiding our steps. We share in the birthright of the only begotten son of God, our brother. The world is as temporary and meaningless as a bowl of lentil stew consumed in fifteen minutes and forgotten. The birthright is ours, but the temptation to trade it is the same as it was for Esau. We must persevere.
His promise is sure. We walk in faith. Christ endured the cross for the joy set before him. We scorn the entanglements of this world for the joy he’s promised us.
God gives his blessing again. This time, he says it is because of Abraham's obedience.
Genesis 22:15-18
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
In a reversal from Genesis 12:1-3, God now tells Abraham after he has been obedient that he will bless him and make him a great nation. In Genesis 12, Abraham believed God’s promises for blessing, and followed God, sight unseen. In Genesis 22, Abraham obediently sacrifices the very promises of God that he can now see before him. After his obedience, he is blessed. Either way, we see along with Abraham that it is God’s faithfulness, not our own actions, that will see the fulfillment of his promised blessing in our life. He allows us to cooperate with him, but in the end, it is all his work.
Hebrews 12 describes Jesus as willingly going to the cross for the joy set before him. That joy is us. The sacrifice of Abraham is the sacrifice that Jesus made. The challenge of laying down heaven for obedience to God is exactly what Jesus did. Philippians 2 says that he left the presence of his father, became human, and died. His was the sacrifice of Job, of Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego, of Abraham. Of his sacrifice, Philippians 2 says our attitude is to be the same.
When Jesus Christ looked forward through the shame of the cross, the joy set before him was us. You are bought by Jesus to enter this covenant. Our lives of faithful obedience today, on earth, revealing the goodness of God to our neighbours, to the world, was enough for Jesus to scorn the shame of the cross.
So let us live for God in this world, right now, today. Let us live each moment for the kingdom and the glory of God. Let us be salt and light, actively living as agents of Jesus’ love and justice in our communities and neighbourhoods at all times, everywhere. Let us see his kingdom here and now.
Let us take up our cross. Let us follow Jesus, for his joy that was set before him.
Next Week –Jacob the Deceiver.
In Two Weeks – Jacob part 2 – Isn’t it Ironic (Don’t ya think?)
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Abraham – Song by Sufjan Stevens
Abraham, worth a righteous one
Take up on the wood
Put it on your son
Lake or lamb
There is none to harm
When the angel came
You had raised your arm
Abraham, put off on your son
Take instead the ram
Until Jesus comes
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Imagine – Song by John Lennon
(Click for video)
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
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