Abraham: Tested Faith
Hebrews 11:17-19
I started playing basketball at a young age, and I played up through varsity basketball in high school. So for years my winters were spent in basketball practice after school. Now, the part of practice that every person on the team hates is the conditioning part of practice. Not so much the skill development and strategy work, working on offenses and defenses and presses and things like that. It was the running. And we were a high-tempo team. We played fast. So we ran in practice a lot.
These days, exercise science has really progressed. Our knowledge of proper nutrition and the need for rest and doing the right kinds of exercise to enable athletes to perform in their sport better is leaps and bounds beyond where it was when I was playing. Today we are creating bigger, taller, faster, stronger, higher jumping athletes than we could back then. But we were still in good shape. We ran a lot.
Every practice ended with a heavy dose of sprints. Down and backs. Line drills. Another drill our sadistic coach invented that he called gut-busters. We’d run like 5 of each. And then we’d shoot free throws. Why? Because free throws are important in basketball, and you need to be able to make them when you’re tired. Out of breath. Really gassed at the end of the game.
The ability to make free throws in the fourth quarter can be the difference between winning and losing. So we’d run, and then we’d shoot. And then we’d run again. And then one player would be picked to shoot. Make it, and practice was over. Miss, and the whole team ran again. And then another player would shoot. Add pressure to the fatigue. Learning to do what needed to be done when it mattered.
But it wasn’t just about developing the ABILITY to make free throws when we were tired. It was about realizing that we COULD make free throws when we were tired. It was about our coach knowing who could make free throws when they were tired. Who needed to be on the floor late in the game if the game was close.
As we continue our journey through New Testament book of Hebrews, we’re doing kind of a mini series inside of a series on Hebrews 11 – the chapter often called “faith’s hall of fame,” or the “hall of faith.” In this chapter, our loving, encouraging pastor gives us example after example after example of ordinary people who showed extraordinary faith in an extraordinary God. They weren’t perfect people by any means. They aren’t super heroes. They’re ordinary, flawed, very broken people who showed great faith in a greater God.
Today, we come to a time in Abraham’s life when his faith was pushed to the limits, not so that God could find out what Abraham’s faith was really made of. God already knew. And not so that Abraham could find out how faithful he was capable of being. This time of intense testing and pressure in Abraham’s life was brought about BY GOD so that Abraham could see just how faithful God really is.
Yes, we live in a broken world, a world that doesn’t always make sense. God isn’t the cause of all of the pain in our lives. But there ARE times when God brings us to something difficult. Asks us to climb a seemingly impossible mountain. Not to punish us or torture us, but so that we’ll gain a deeper understanding of just how good and faithful God really is. Turn with me to Hebrews 11:17-19.
The story of this time of intense testing in Abraham’s life is told in Genesis 22. Of course we know that God had promised Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would be too numerous to count. The problem was that Abraham was 99 and Sarah was 90 when God first made this promise to them. And they had no children! Sarah had been barren throughout her fertile years anyway. She had always been unable to conceive, and now she was too old to conceive.
That’s why, when God gave Abraham this promise, Abraham laughed. Genesis 17:17 says, “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” A little while later, God appeared to Abraham while he was resting in the shade at the door of his tent, and Sarah overheard God tell Abraham that she would have a son in the next year. And Genesis 18:12 says, “And Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
And then, right on time, the promised child, a son, was born. To a hundred year old dad and a 91 year old mom. And they named him Isaac. Do you know what Isaac means? It means, “He laughs.” God had made an impossible promise to Abraham and Sarah. A promise that targeted an area of deep shame for them. They had no children. In that day, not being able to conceive was viewed at best as a lack of God’s blessing, and at worst as a sign of a curse from God. In the eyes of those around them, Abraham and Sarah, in spite of their power and wealth, weren’t blessed by God, they were cursed.
The promise was so impossible that both Abraham and Sarah, who in reality had a deep faith in God, thought is was a joke. And they laughed. And then Isaac was born. And their sarcastic laughter turned into the laughter of deep joy. They had a son. They were old; they couldn’t keep up with him. Abraham and Isaac go out to toss a baseball and Abraham falls asleep standing there. But they had a son! God’s power was greater than the impossibility of it all. They had a son. After years of trying, all to no avail. And then, their time had passed. And yet, there he was. Standing right there. At their table. In his bed. Playing with his friends. Their son. Isaac. “He laughs.”
But Abraham needed to see the fullness, the true expanse, of God’s faithfulness. So God asked Abraham to give him the promised son back. Genesis 22:1. “God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Abraham has learned that when God speaks, miracles happen. And that obedience to God has been a source of great fulfillment and adventure. Abraham has seen God do some amazing things. So when God calls, Abraham doesn’t hesitate. He has never hesitated. God speaks, and the first thing out of Abraham’s lips is “Here I am.” What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? Here I am, LORD.”
But what God said next made even less sense than God’s promise of descendants too numerous to count to an aged couple. God was asking Abraham to give the promised son back to him. “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.” Those words must have gone right through Abraham’s heart. “Take your son.” Good father’s love their sons. This son meant more than most. He was a living, breathing miracle, born to them in their old age. The forerunner of a promised legacy and blessing.
“Your ONLY son.” The word translated as “only” here means more than just “only child.” It means beloved and unique. There was only one Isaac. Only one child born in laughter. There was no other child like him among Abraham’s extended family and people. He was special. A promised child.
“Whom you love.” This son who is so close to your heart. This son you’ve watched grow and develop in amazement. This son you’ve poured yourself into. This son you’d die to save. “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.” Take the promise I gave you, the apple of your eye, and give it back to me.
What thoughts must have entered Abraham’s mind? The people of Canaan were known to practice child sacrifice. Was Yahweh no different than the false gods of the people among whom he now lived? Was this God he had been following, listening to, obeying, nothing but another demonic force in a harsh, dark, and broken world?
And yet, God had never failed him. He’d seen God do some amazing things. He’d experienced God’s intervention in his life over and over again. God’s protection. God’s provision. God’s blessing. Psychologists call this cognitive dissonance. Two mutually exclusive things that don’t seem to go together. Two things you can’t believe at the same time. Something that flies in the face of everything you’ve known up to this point. And we as human beings don’t tend to handle it well.
But Abraham’s trust in God outweighs his questions. So much so, that Genesis tells us that early the next morning, right away, Abraham got up, saddled his donkey, grabbed a couple of his men, cut wood for the offering, and then got Isaac and went to Moriah to worship God there … and offer a sacrifice.
Most scholars believe that the mountain in Moriah they were headed to would later be the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. If so, it was 45 miles from where Abraham was living in Beersheba to Moriah. A solid three day journey on foot. What an excruciating three days that must have been for Abraham! There, walking with him on this father-son outing was his beloved son, a son he loved dearly and would die for. And each step brought him one step closer to him having to do the unthinkable. To become just like the Canaanites who did practice child sacrifice. To slay his beloved son on an altar, and then burn the remains. Each step he took was heavier than the last.
I hope the thought of it makes you just a little bit angry. Uncomfortable. Squirm in your seat. Its supposed to. Laughter has turned to tears and anger. But notice what Abraham says to the men with them when they get to Moriah. Genesis 22:5. “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” The NIV actually captures the true sense of the Hebrew text here more fully. “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. WE will worship and then WE will come back to you.” The word “we” is repeated with each action. WE will go. WE will worship. WE will come back.
In spite of what God was currently asking of him, Abraham believed in the goodness and love and faithfulness of God. And so Abraham trusted God. He trusted God with his son. He trusted God with God’s own promise. Even when his current situation seemed to indicate that maybe he shouldn’t. That maybe God wasn’t so good and loving and trustworthy.
So off Abraham and Isaac go. The wood for the sacrifice strapped to Isaac’s back. The knife in a pocket in Abraham’s robe. But where is the lamb for the sacrifice? And it is the mouth of Isaac himself who points out the missing piece. Genesis 22:7-8. “And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” The word Isaac used for father is the Hebrew word “Abi,” or “Abba,” in later Aramaic. It means, “Dearest father” or even “daddy.” We can feel the closeness of the relationship between Abraham and his beloved son. The depth of their love for one another.
“Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” God will provide the lamb. Abraham knew two things. He knew that God is faithful and full of love and mercy, and also that God was asking him to do this. It was going to be up to God to make it all work out. Even if God had to raise Isaac from the dead. Hebrews 11:19 says, “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead …”
But it wasn’t until “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 … and then reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son” that God called out again “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Gen. 22:9-11). That was always Abraham’s answer. Whenever God spoke to him, his immediate – IMMEDIATE – answer was “Here I am.” What do you want me to do. And the actual lamb for the sacrifice was provided right there on the mountain.
In “Teaching Respect Within the Home,” Dave Stone writes:
A number of years ago, our family was in the Dominican Republic on a mission trip. If you’ve ever driven in a developing country, you know how dangerous the traffic can be. Vehicles whiz past, coming within just a few feet of children playing close to the road. One night, my son Sam was playing a game in his own little world, in which he would zig and zag, back and forth from sidewalk onto the narrow street and back. It wasn’t a heavily travelled road; but there was always loud music blaring, and it was pitch dark. From about 10 feet away, I suddenly shouted, “Samuel, don’t move!”
Immediately he froze. About a second later a Moped zipped past him, going 30 mph with no lights on – right where Sam was about to step. My 6-year-old didn’t ignore me, argue, or blatantly disobey. I said freeze, and he froze. That obedience probably saved his life.[i]
How much do you trust God? How much do you trust God’s goodness? God’s grace? God’s faithfulness. How far is your trust in God really willing to go? No, God wasn’t asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. But Abraham didn’t know that. He was asking Abraham to trust him to be faithful. He was showing Abraham just how far his faithfulness went. We need to know that we can trust God’s goodness and love and faithfulness no matter what this world, our own minds, and our own incomplete view of what God must be doing call all of that into question. God. Is. Faithful. We can trust him. God will fulfill his promises. ALL of his promises.
With everything going on in the world today, I hear a lot of Christ followers calling out “How long, oh Lord.” How long are you going to wait. How long until Christ returns. How long are we going to have to deal with all of this? How long, oh Lord. And pretty much every generation since the time of Christ has firmly believed that things couldn’t get much worse and that Christ would surely return in their lifetime. And to date, Christ hasn’t returned. It’s tempting to forget that he IS coming again and live as if he really isn’t. Or to wring our hands in fear and worry. Or to try to take matters into our own hands and force the kingdom of God down peoples throats, forcing them to live according to the law of God, even though they don’t recognize his authority.
But God is patient. He wants to give as many as possible the chance to come to him. And so he waits. But we KNOW that he will not wait forever. He WILL return. His kingdom WILL come in its fullness. Those who follow him WILL spend eternity in a new heavens and a new earth he has carefully made. He WILL wipe every tear from our eyes, destroying both sin and death and removing grief from our experience. And until then, he WILL give you and I the strength to hold on to him for one more second, one more minute, one more day, one more year, one more decade. God. Is. Faithful.
How do we know that? Because in Christ, God DID exactly what Abraham though he was being asked to do. He DID provide the promised Son. He DID express great joy in the life of that Son. That Son DID carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain to the altar. But unlike Isaac, that Son DID offer himself up as a sacrifice. That Son BECAME the lamb of sacrifice. And yet, even then, God brought life from death, and with it, forgiveness and grace and mercy without measure. God. Is. Faithful. Let’s pray.
[i] Dave Stone, “Teaching Respect Within the Home,” Preaching (July/August 2012)
