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Genesis 22:1-19
22:1 After these things God tested Abraham 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.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy1 will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And 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 they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”;2 as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”3
15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his4 enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.
[1] 22:5
[2] 22:14
[3] 22:14
[4] 22:17
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
We are gonna be in Genesis chapter 22 this morning. Genesis 22. Genesis chapter 22. If you
Joel Brooks:don't have a Bible with you, it
Jeffrey Heine:is in your worship guide. Beginning with verse 1 and reading through verse 19. And let us listen carefully, for this is God's word. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, 'Here I am.' 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.
Jeffrey Heine:So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took 2 of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the 3rd day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.' And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.
Jeffrey Heine:And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they both went together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am my son. 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 a burnt offering, my son.' So they went, both of them together.
Jeffrey Heine:When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter 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 lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.
Jeffrey Heine:For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.' And Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, 'By myself I have sworn,' declares the Lord, 'because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemy. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.
Jeffrey Heine:So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, would you who met Abraham on the hill in Moriah, meet with us this morning by your Spirit?
Jeffrey Heine:Would you, who open the heavens to declare your promises, open our hearts and minds to your promises today? And would you, oh, lord, who spoke truth and grace to the deepest needs of Abraham, speak to our deepest needs as well? So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:I am often told, that I look like someone's friend or coworker or nephew. Even when I walked up here, there was probably some of you that said, like, oh, he kind of looks like yeah. That it's happened all my life. I'm used to it. More frequent now, though, is that people, ask to take photos of me.
Jeffrey Heine:Not with me, of me. Some people don't even ask. They just hold up phones, and they take a photo. I'm sure that I have a passing resemblance to these people that they have in mind. It's probably three things.
Jeffrey Heine:Red hair, glasses, and a beard. Just three things. That's all it takes to look the same. And when the glasses come off, the prince Harry jokes start. And so there's nowhere to run.
Jeffrey Heine:But us gingers, we are a rare breed. And with beard and glasses, I suppose we all look enough alike to you people. If Dwight Castle and Matt Francisco ever get glasses, this place will be chaos. But I'm sure that as these people linger just a moment longer, like, one second, they would realize that I don't really look like the people that they know. For a moment, a quick glimpse sure.
Jeffrey Heine:I I looked like them. But if they would slow down, they they would see. And a quick glance at Genesis 22, it seems like any other wild old testament story. Just 19 lines, this quick story of God and Abraham. But if you linger, if you slow down, it becomes strangely unfamiliar.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't really look like God, not the God that we have been learning about for 22 chapters. And furthermore, it doesn't really look like Abraham, not the one that we've gotten to know. Something feels off here. Does it to you? Does this look like God to you, asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac without explanation or any reason given?
Jeffrey Heine:And does this look like Abraham to you, asking no questions of the command? Chapter after chapter of Genesis, every time God has asked him to do anything, Abraham has responded with questions, even argued with God. And wouldn't this be the time to argue? When God promises greatness, Abraham asks, how? When God promises land, Abraham asks how will he know that it's his?
Jeffrey Heine:When God promises an heir, Abraham laughs and asks how. When God declares judgment is coming to Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham argues. And here, when God calls him to slay his own son, his beloved son, the child of promise, not a word. We have to ask, what's going on here? It's helpful to read this story, chapter 22, of the the father and the son, Abraham and Isaac, in light of the story of a father and a son in chapter 21, Abraham and Ishmael.
Jeffrey Heine:Because remember, something tremendously significant just occurred when Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael must be expelled from the house of Abraham. And we looked at this last Sunday, and I I'll offer a few quick reminders of what happened and how we got there. From the time of Abraham's calling by God to leave his homeland and his family and follow the Lord into the unknown, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child, even though they were both very old and Sarah was unable to conceive. God was establishing a covenant. A covenant that is a a relationship with promises.
Jeffrey Heine:He was making promises to Abraham and to the offspring of Abraham. God was making promises about building a great nation, giving Abraham land and offspring. And he promised himself that that the Lord would be the God of his people forever, not leaving them or forsaking them. He would be steadfast and trustworthy. And even when the people would disobey, it would be God who would give forgiveness.
Jeffrey Heine:God made covenant promises. And for the most part, it appears that Abraham and Sarah believed him. They followed him into the unknown and worshiped him in the wild. But there were times in their believing that they also disbelieved. Like when they ran off from the promised land to Egypt when the famine came because they distrusted that the Lord would provide food or when they lied to the pharaoh in Egypt because they distrusted that the Lord would provide protection And when, after 10 years, there was still no promised child, they went to a maidservant because they distrusted that the Lord would provide a child.
Jeffrey Heine:Sarah comes up with a plan. It was common practice that if a woman of wealth and means could not conceive a child, that her maidservant could act as a surrogate. And if you're having flashes of the handmaid's tail, you are disturbingly not far off. Sarah sees her handmaid Hagar. She's going to be the answer.
Jeffrey Heine:Hagar would be the way Sarah could make God's promise come true. This was a very dangerous venture. And we can be guilty of this too, though we might not even realize it. We can presume that the will of the lord must be for us to get what we desire, and then we set about trying to make it come true. God must want me to be happy or dating someone or married or having children or the promotion at work or or owning a certain possession, a material gain.
Jeffrey Heine:And we make our own plans in our own strength and call it the will of God. We just shoehorn in our desires and plans into the language of God's blessing. And we keep dating that guy or that girl that's not right for us. Or we go down the slippery slopes compromising our health for the perfect body or the perfect child, and we are determined that God would not withhold anything that we want from us. But God is not a vending machine that we tip over when we don't get what we want.
Jeffrey Heine:And some of us today in this room find it hard to sing songs of worship and even pray because we are mad at God for withholding something that he never promised us. And some of us are in the midst of trying to fulfill our own desires with our own strength, regardless of God's will, because we are trying to write the script of God's will in our own life. And the story of Sarah and Ishmael speaks to how we do this. It speaks to our disbelieving that God really is working all things together for our good and that his ways are better than what we can devise on our own. When Hagar becomes pregnant with Abraham's child, she looks at Sarah with contempt.
Jeffrey Heine:She looks at her with dishonor. The passage reads that because Hagar was able to get pregnant and Sarah could not, that Hagar looked at Sarah with a disdainful scoffing pity. And in turn, Sarah was severe and harsh with Hagar. In time, Hagar bore a son to Abraham and named him Ishmael. 14 years later, the Lord comes to Abraham once again to talk about those covenant promises.
Jeffrey Heine:God had reiterated these promises multiple times. We see it in chapter 12, chapter 15, and here in chapter 17, where God comes to Abraham once again. And once again, the Lord tells him that he will have a son, a child of promise, to carry out the covenant to the next generation. And Abraham responds, yes, lord. Sarah and I have figured it out.
Jeffrey Heine:I have a son now, and he can be the promised child. Enough with the waiting. Let it be Ishmael. And this is crucial, because for 14 years, even though Sarah despised Hagar, even though Hagar had looked at Sarah with contempt, Abraham and Sarah still thought they had found a way to make God's promises come true on their own, their own terms, their own effort, their own strength. Abraham begs God saying, let Ishmael be the promised child.
Jeffrey Heine:And in Genesis chapter 17 verse 9, God sharply, clearly, and definitively says no. He repeats, Sarah, your wife will have a son, and you will name the child Isaac. 1 year later, it finally happens. Sarah has a son. By the time Isaac is weaned, Sarah resolves that Hagar and Ishmael were no longer welcomed in the household.
Jeffrey Heine:She sees Ishmael laughing at little Isaac and thinks about how Ishmael is the firstborn of Abraham, an heir to what God has promised, and she demands that Abraham cast him out. Abraham mockingly laughed at the promise of Isaac. Sarah mockingly laughed at the promise of Isaac. But when Ishmael mockingly laughs at Isaac, Sarah sees that he is a threat to the covenant promises. Think about this.
Jeffrey Heine:Ishmael literally exists because of Sarah. The whole thing was her design. Ishmael was born to be her son. Like Eve, when she beheld the tree and saw the fruit look good for eating, regardless of God's plan, regardless of what he had commanded her, Sarah looked at Hagar and decided to make her own way to have a son. Because God must be holding out, and he was definitely taking too long.
Jeffrey Heine:She had to take matters into her own hands. Sarah had to make God's promises come true because the Lord wasn't providing. She didn't trust him to provide. She had to make it on her own and call it God's. Sarah lives in the consequences of this distrust like we all do, even now that God's promise of Isaac had come to pass.
Jeffrey Heine:Now now that the way that God had always intended, it had occurred, and Sarah no longer needed her shoddy backup plan. She demands Hagar and Ishmael be expelled from the household of Abraham, and Abraham obliges. Years go by, and what happens next is as terrifying as it is unexpected. Genesis chapter 22 verse 1. God decides to test Abraham.
Jeffrey Heine:To be clear, God is not tempting him. He's not trying to get him to sin. Rather, he is testing him. And in testing, God confronts and instructs, so we might mature and grow in trusting him. That's the difference between temptation and testing.
Jeffrey Heine:The theologian William Mounts is helpful in making that distinction between tempting and testing, saying, quote, God does not induce anyone to sin. And in fact, we are to admit our dependence on God as we pray for protection from temptation. However, trials and testing will occur so our faith can be purified and shown to us to be true, all of which enables us to grow up into maturity, end quote. God decides to test Abraham. And like that first time so many years ago in the land of Ur, Abraham hears the now familiar voice of the Lord call out his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Abraham. And just like that first time, he responds, here I am. As God has many times before, he gives Abraham directions, where to go and what to do. This has become a common theme in the life of Abraham, but something in this is different. The directions are horrifying.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 2, God says to Abraham, 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 will show you. So many questions come rushing at once. Sacrifice? The promised Isaac? And where is this land of Moriah?
Jeffrey Heine:And wait. Isaac is his only son? Well, I guess now that's true. Now that Hagar and Ishmael have been sent off, Isaac is now his only son. And it's at this point in time when Sarah, who had first desired for Hagar to bear a son and then cast them aside, when she finally bore her own son, it's at this point that God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, now that there isn't a backup plan.
Jeffrey Heine:Now when Sarah has released her grip on trying to make God's promises come true through Hagar, now when she finally has a son of her own, it is now when God asks for the child to be offered up. Does that look like God to you? From what we've learned about God in these 22 chapters of Genesis, does this resemble God? And Abraham, who does not object, doesn't ask a question, in fact, he doesn't say a word, does that look like Abraham to you? In the story of Abraham, we've seen more instances of his distrust in the Lord than his trust.
Jeffrey Heine:It's been a long road of believing and not believing. In that, I see a strong resemblance between Abraham and myself. The believing in simultaneous unbelieving. The confidence and the questioning. Like Abraham, I'm a skeptic by nature and nurture.
Jeffrey Heine:In the words of Walt Whitman, I too am resistant of taking things at second or third hand. The story of Abraham is a long road of believing and not believing, trusting and not trusting that the Lord would provide. And here, in what might be the the most outrageous and least logical instruction he's received from the Lord, Abraham doesn't say a word. He just wakes up early and obeys. Maybe that's the reason it doesn't look like the Abraham that we've come to know, because he's behaving in a way that's out of character.
Jeffrey Heine:He's simply taking God at his word and obeying. I think it's critical, as we interpret this difficult story right, to keep in mind that what God has asked Abraham to do is entirely outrageous on purpose. God never planned for it to ultimately happen. He never intended for Isaac to be killed. As a test, it was important for Abraham to trust God up to the point that it could happen, though.
Jeffrey Heine:The test was for Abraham, not God, For Abraham to display and to know and to experience deep surrender, the surrender that God had been leading him to all these years. And in Genesis 22, Abraham is living in true surrender. And this is critical, because in the words of the late Brennan Manning, this god can ask anything of us. And Abraham has been learning this lesson on the long road of surrendering to God. You see, the test was never really about sacrificing Isaac.
Jeffrey Heine:It was always about surrendering to God. The greatest tests and trials that you will face in your life are never just about the thing in front of you. It's always about surrendering to the Lord and trusting him to provide. And Abraham, since Genesis chapter 12, has been on this long road of surrender and trust. This long road requires learning that I'm not going to make God's promises come true.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm the one who trusts and obeys. God is the one who makes the promises come true. That's the liberating truth of the gospel, the covenant of grace established in the blood of Jesus. It's that you don't make God's promises come true. You surrender and you obey.
Jeffrey Heine:If that sounds harsh and unsettling, that's because it is. God's grace unsettles us. It disturbs us, and then it comforts us. And that's exactly what God does here with Abraham. Abraham doesn't say a word.
Jeffrey Heine:He just wakes up early the next morning. It's still dark and quiet. The fire from the night before has died down to embers. He readies his donkey and takes 2 of his servants with him. He wakes Isaac and tells him that they're going to worship the Lord in the land of Moriah.
Jeffrey Heine:Abraham cut the wood himself. He could have had a servant do it, but this was his offering to give, his child, his sacrifice. They load up and depart. It doesn't say if Sarah knew what was happening. I doubt it.
Jeffrey Heine:If she did, the scene would have been too overwhelming to express in words. You know, none of the gospel writers record the wailing of the virgin Mary at the crucifixion of Jesus. But I'm sure John never forgot the terrifying sound of her grief. The land of Moriah was a 3 day journey of 50 miles. That's a lot of time to turn around.
Jeffrey Heine:There were many hills in the area of Moriah. One of them would one day be the hill where the temple would be built. Another hill would later be called Calvary. But for Adam or for Abraham, long before this land was called Jerusalem, the Lord would direct him to 1 of the hills to offer up his son, his only son, whom he loves. On the 3rd day, when they had reached the land of Moriah Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the hills, he said to his servants, stay here with the donkey.
Jeffrey Heine:I and the boy will go over there and worship, and will come again to you. Do you think he believed that? That they both would come back down the hill? I don't guess he could very well tell them that he planned on coming back alone. Abraham took the wood off of the donkey and placed it on Isaac to carry.
Jeffrey Heine:To think that another son would one day carry the wood of his execution up those same hills. Abraham took in one hand the knife, in the other hand the fire. Father and son began their journey. For the first time in Genesis, Isaac speaks to his father Abraham. And displaying that the apple has not fallen far from the tree, it is a question.
Jeffrey Heine:My father,' he says, 'I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb?' Isaac sees that all the elements required for the offering are there except the main one, the lamb. Where is the lamb? He asks. And Abraham's response shows us just how far he has come. He looks at his son, his only son, whom he loves, and says, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering.
Jeffrey Heine:One way or another, the Lord will provide what has been required. Hear this. Whatever you need to be found faithful to whatever God has called you to, God himself will provide. He does not ask of us what he does not provide for us so that you might be found faithful to him. God will absolutely reveal your weakness, your inabilities, your shortcomings, your limitations, but he will supply what is required of you.
Jeffrey Heine:And that is ultimately and supremely displayed in the giving of his son, his only son, whom he loves. Remember, it was the will of the father to crush him, that you might be called righteous and his child forever. Abraham looks at his son and resolutely declares that God will provide, and so they walk up the hill together. When they come to the place which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and he laid the wood in order. And then the father began to bind up his son.
Jeffrey Heine:His son was surely stronger than he was at this time. But Abraham picked up his son and laid him on the altar. He laid him down on top of the wood, the son of the covenant, the one who was to carry out the promise of offspring to become a great nation, to bless the world, the one Abraham and Sarah had impatiently waited for for years. The old man lays him down on the wood, admitting and confessing his powerlessness and his total dependence upon the Lord. Then Abraham pulls out the knife to slaughter his son.
Jeffrey Heine:How long he held the knife in the air, we don't know. How loud he wept, how ravaged by sorrow and anguish his soul was, we don't know. Nor do we know what Isaac was thinking. Did he believe his father? Did he believe that the Lord would provide?
Jeffrey Heine:The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book called Fear and Trembling about this scene. And he imagines different ways, configurations, different emotions, different ways that this could be playing out, but it's all speculation and imagination. Because we don't know. But we do know that they were humans. They were people like us, parents and kids.
Jeffrey Heine:And fear and trembling often accompanies trusting the Lord. But interrupting this obedient agony, the Lord urgently breaks through the heavens and calls out, Abraham. Abraham. And I can only imagine Abraham through terror, exhaustion and tears replying, Here I am. The Lord says, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.
Jeffrey Heine:For now I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked around and saw behind him a grown male sheep, a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as the burnt offering instead of his son. The Lord spoke through the angel again, reiterating and intensifying the covenant promises that God had been declaring chapter after chapter, repeating once again that it will be by his faithfulness that these promises will come true. He says to Abraham, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Abraham and Isaac descend the hill together, and they walk out of the land of Moriah. Abraham called the place of that hill, the Lord will provide.
Jeffrey Heine:They returned to the ser servants, and they journey home. The Lord will provide. That looks like God, doesn't it? That looks like the God that we have seen through Genesis, who, even when he punishes Adam and Eve with curses, he gives them a promise of a savior. This looks like the God who, even when he judges with floods, he promises peace.
Jeffrey Heine:This looks like the God who, even when Hagar and Ishmael are suffering exile, he promises his presence and protection. And when God tests Abraham to express the faith in action, it is God who provides the sacrifice. That looks like the God we have come to know in Genesis. And when the consequences of sin threaten to destroy God's creation, he provides his own lamb. The lamb who will take away the sin of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:Because it is the will of the father to crush him, the one for the many, that we might be healed. That looks like God. And while Abraham does not look like he used to, that is for the better. Because now he trusts in the Lord. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says this.
Jeffrey Heine:Abraham considered that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead because Abraham believed without question when God said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. One way or another, Abraham was convinced he would walk down that hill with his son alive. Even if that meant that God had to raise him from the dead. How was he so sure? Because God had made a covenant, a relationship of promise.
Jeffrey Heine:That's all Abraham had when he walked up that mountain, and that's all he needed. God's word was enough. God had promised, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Why did it have to be Isaac? In Islam, the Quran recounts the story of Abraham offering up his son to God.
Jeffrey Heine:But the Quran does not name the child. It has been traditionally interpreted as Ishmael. Many modern Islamic commentators maintain that it could be either son and that it really doesn't matter, because what matters is Abraham's obedience to God. That is the moral of the story. But I disagree.
Jeffrey Heine:I think the story falls apart if it's not Isaac. The entire crux of the story is wrapped up in the fact that God made covenant promises to Abraham about Isaac. It has to be Isaac, because that is what God said. That's what he promised. That's the only reason Abraham could be confident.
Jeffrey Heine:It wasn't just some vague promise and hopefulness that maybe God will be able to see him through. He knew that the promise was for Isaac. And if it's not Isaac, it falls apart. He stood there knife in hand because he had a promise from God that that boy was going to live. That is how he trusted.
Jeffrey Heine:It was because of a promise. The lesson of Genesis 22, if we have to reduce it to 1, it's not a moral lesson. It isn't primarily about how we have to be willing to sacrifice what we care about for God. The ultimate lesson is that we can put all our hope and all our trust in the steadfast covenant promises of God. Everything else can shake and crumble.
Jeffrey Heine:Everything else can be demanded of us and laid on the fire. What God has established in his covenant promises, it's unshakable. This isn't a story about how to be brave and bold like Abraham. It's a story about how to be broken and trust in the promises of God. The lord will provide.
Jeffrey Heine:Abraham, through years of waiting, suffering, hoping, failing, believing and disbelieving, Abraham learned of the unyielding promises of God, that God can demand everything because he is the creator of everything, giver of everything, sustainer of everything, the God who can demand everything stopped at nothing to fulfill his promises to his children. And even taking his son, his only son, whom he loves to be in our place. Does that look like the God that you know? Do you recognize him here in Genesis 22? Do you know and trust this God today?
Jeffrey Heine:He is the God of the gospel of promise, the God who out of his own free desire set his love on you and sent his son, his only son whom he loves, to live a common but perfect life, to suffer an uncommon and horrifying death to be a sacrifice for you. There would be no ram in the thicket this time. The sun would be killed, but the sun would be raised. The sun drank the cup of wrath to the last drop, so you may never fear the wrath of God, but instead know his steadfast and everlasting love forever. Centuries after Abraham and Isaac descended the hill of Moriah, the apostle Paul would write to Christians in Rome in Romans chapter 4 verse 13, saying this about Abraham.
Jeffrey Heine:For the promise to Abraham and
Joel Brooks:his offspring, that he would be heir of the world,
Jeffrey Heine:did not come through the law, the who are to be the heirs, then faith is null. Promise is void. For the law brings wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring.
Jeffrey Heine:To all who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations, in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope, Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. For he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, seeing that he was about a 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah? No. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Jeffrey Heine:That is why Abraham told his servants that he and the boy were going up the hill to worship the Lord, and that is why he said they would both return down the mountain. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what God had promised to do, in hope. Abraham believed against hope. He believed against everything he could see in front of him, because the promises of God rest on grace. If this story sounds harsh and unsettling, that's because it is.
Jeffrey Heine:God's grace does unsettle us. It disturbs us from where we are and leads us to where we need to be, and he comforts us in that grace. We walk back down the mountain looking less like our old selves, convinced more than ever that God is able to do what he has promised, that the Lord through Christ Jesus has provided for us everything we need for life with him forever. And we can surrender to him today, because his promises are true. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:God, in the stillness of this moment, help us to recognize our need for you. And, Lord, help us to surrender. Help us to surrender to your grace, your mercy. Help us to believe on Jesus, to trust him, to follow him. What I I pray specifically for the people here today who have never surrendered to you, Lord, that you would call them tenderly by your Spirit, that you would breathe life into them, that you would carry them from death to life in your son, Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:It's in his name that we pray these things. Amen.