Week 5 - Day 2
THE STORY
Rescue (Old Testament)
THE TEST
After waiting 25 years, Isaac is finally born to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac’s name means laughter and every time they called him by name it probably brought a smile to their face. God was faithful. The Rescue of being blessed to be a blessing to the whole world has begun.
Then God asks Abraham to do what has to be the most difficult thing ever done in the Bible.
Genesis 22:1-10 (NLT)
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.
WHAT IN THE WORLD?!
What did God tell Abraham to do?
Why would God ask this of Abraham?
What does Abraham do?
GOD WILL PROVIDE
Genesis 22:11-19
At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.
How does God respond to Abraham’s obedience?
Because of Abraham’s obedience, God reiterates His covenantal promise to Abraham. What is that promise?
Abraham’s faithful obedience sets the tone for all of God’s people. In the New Testament, the Apostle James writes this about Abraham’s faith.
James 2:21-14 & 26
Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.
What does the story of Abraham’s test tell us about the relationship between faith and obedience?
True and living faith results in obedience to God’s Word. Obedience is the outward expression of our inner faith.
PREVIEW
Actually, God’s request of Abraham was the second most difficult thing someone had to do in the Bible. The first is what God would do Himself. He would not withhold His Son, His only Son whom He dearly loved. And these two sacrifices are connected by the fact that God had sent Abraham to a mountain in the land of Moriah to sacrifice Isaac. Many years later, King Solomon would build the Temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah (see 2 Chronicles 3:1). And it would be on this mountain that God would provide the ultimate substitute and sacrifice for our sin—His One and Only Son Jesus Christ. God is truly Yahweh-Yireh (aka Jehovah Jireh). The LORD has provided on the mountain for our Rescue.
John 3:16 (NIV)
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.
Romans 8:32 (NIV)
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
1 John 4:9-10 (Author’s Translation)
This is how God showed us His love: He sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the wrath-removing-sacrifice for our sins.
Abraham was prepared to give up his son Isaac. But who actually did give up His Son? What does this tell you about our Father God?
Once again, how is Jesus’ the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham?
Stay tuned for how God’s One and Only Son and the faith that Abraham displayed leads to our Rescue.
In light of what you have discovered through the Bible readings and your personal reflections, how will you respond? Finish this sentence: I will …