Seventh
Sunday after Trinity, 2009
Text:
Genesis 22:1-18
The
Rev. Jerry Kistler
St.
Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church
Faith on the Proving Grounds
“Now it came to pass
after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he
said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom
you love, and go to the
On the road from Needles,
Like Abraham, God does put our faith to the test, doesn’t He? We all have stories we could share But the message of Genesis 22 is that when God brings us into a situation where our faith is stretched to what feels like the breaking point, the only remedy is to continue to trust in His faithfulness and rely on His providence.
You’ve got to imagine that after God had given Abraham his
son Isaac, and the years had passed when Isaac was now
a twelve or thirteen year-old boy, Abraham must have been thinking, “Okay, now
things are going good. God has given me my promised son. No more of this
incessant waiting. I’ve proven my faith to God. I believed Him when He promised
to give me a son by Sarah, even when she was ninety-years old and long past
child-bearing. So now, as an old man, I can sit back and begin to see the
promise fulfilled that “in Isaac [my] descendants shall be called.” I can watch
Isaac grow to manhood, and then maybe even see some grand-children if God
grants me a few more years.” And then God suddenly shows up and says, “Abraham,
go take Isaac your son, your only son, the son whom you love, and sacrifice him
on
“How could this be part of the plan? How could God ask such of a thing of his faithful servant?” God’s command seems to contradict His promise. And yet Abraham held on to the promise of God and obeyed even though his obedience seemed to go completely contrary to both reason and the divine promise.
There’s a lesson here for us. When God’s Word gives us a command that goes contrary to what we think we know about God, or what we think is reasonable to assume about God, then we don’t change the commandment of God; we obey, and we change our view of God. Just for an example: how many times recently have you heard someone say something like this: “I just can’t believe God would not bless the union of two people who truly loved each other, even if they happened to be of the same sex. I just don’t think God is that un-loving.” The answer to that is you need to obey God’s commandments with regard to human sexuality and marriage and change your view of God. Change your view of God so that it conforms to His commandments, and then you’ll know you’re believing and obeying the real God, not a god of your own imagination.
Abraham obeyed God even though his obedience seemed to contradict what he knew about God. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, we read that early the next morning Abraham got up to prepare for the task. There was no hesitance, just trust. No questioning, just obedience. Abraham went forward in the faith that God would keep his promise – that “in Isaac his seed would be called.” Hebrews tells us that Abraham reasoned that God would raise Isaac back from the dead, so sure was he that God would not fail to keep His Word to him. Listen again to what it says in Genesis 22:5: When Abraham and his son left the servants to go up the mountain, Abraham said, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” That’s trust!
When Isaac then asked, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham didn’t know what the future held. And yet his response showed that whatever was about to happen, he was sure that God knew what He was doing. Abraham spoke reassuringly to his son: “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” That’s faith! Abraham laid the wood upon his son and the two of them walked together up the mountain. And reaching the summit, Abraham bound his son and laid him on the altar.. And then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. That’s amazing faith!
This is what it means to have faith in God. It’s not just believing in Him when everything is going good. It’s not trusting your feelings or even your reason. It’s trusting in God sometimes despite your feelings and your reason. It’s having confidence in Him even when it seems as if He’s your enemy and that He cares nothing for you. It’s looking to Him for all good things even when only bad things seem to be coming your way. It’s relying on Him even when everything in life seems to be turned against you and you’ve got nothing to hold onto but His words and His promises. That’s what Abraham did – he clung to God’s promise regarding his son. And that is also what we are to do – to cling to God’s promises regarding His Son, Jesus Christ. For that is what the passage is really about. Its about seeing and trusting that God has provided the Lamb for all of us who were bound by our sins under the upraised knife of God’s wrath.
This whole account points us to Christ. This entire event is a picture and a prophesy of what our Lord Jesus Christ would do for us on this very same mountain. For remember Isaac was not killed. At the very last possible moment God stayed Abraham’s hand, for the time of the sacrifice of the Son had not yet come, and would not come until Good Friday.
Consider what is being foreshadowed here. Isaac was Abraham’s
only son, his beloved son; his son conceived in a miraculous way. So also God
the Father gave His only begotten and beloved Son, miraculously conceived by
the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary. Abraham laid the wood on Isaac his son, and
led him to the top of the mountain. Even so the Father laid the wood of the
cross on His Son Jesus, and he went out bearing His cross to the top of
You see, God tested the faith of Abraham, and He will test your faith also from time to time. But He does so for a reason. He does so for your spiritual well-being, to prove and improve your faith in Him, even as gold is tested and purified by fire.
St Peter opens up his first epistle with this very thought:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:3-7).
So here’s a simple question that might help you apply this passage of the testing of Abraham to your own life: What do you value more: a strong faith, or a comfortable life? It is clear from the passage that God values our faith above our comfort.
F.B. Meyer once wrote, “See how much God thinks of faith. It is priceless in his sight…. It is the root of all other graces, the germ of the saintly life, the key to the divine storehouse, the foot of the heavenly ladder, the earthly pier of the arch that bridges the abyss between the unseen and the seen. To make it strong in one poor heart is a matter of extreme value in his sight. And since it can only grow strong by use, and exercise, and strain, be not surprised if he exposes you to discipline, graduated according to your power, but becoming ever severer, until beneath his gracious tuition the faith that once shivered at sight of the shallows will plunge fearlessly in the deep, and do business in mighty waters.” +