The Father of Faith

Genesis 22:1-19

1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

2 “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.”

3 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. 4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 “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.”

6 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, 7 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?”

8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

9 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. 10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”

12 “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.”

13 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. 14 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.”

15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “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 17 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. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

19 Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.

I love this story! This is such a powerful one to illustrate what it means to have faith in God and also shows the kind of obedience we are to show to God when He asks us to do something.

So the story starts out with Abraham receiving some interesting news from God. He wants Abraham to go and sacrifice this son that was promised to him in his old age. Some commentaries place Isaac's age at around 17 when this takes place. This means that Isaac was very capable of running away once he finds out what is going on. First to note here is that Abraham knows that it is the voice of God telling him to do this. When God tempts us to something it is to test our faith, not to lead us into sin. Notice that Abraham doesn't say a word to Sarah, he doesn't form a committee and he doesn't start a prayer chain. He knows that when God asks Him to do something he needs to obey quickly and quietly.

Verse 3 starts off with showing us how quickly Abraham listens, the next morning he does what God asks. What is not relayed here is that the journey he takes is 3 days long. This would give him plenty of time to think about God's request and ways to get out of it. He is also not only to supposed to kill his son, but offer him as a burnt offering. There were a lot of things that needed to happen in order to offer up burnt offerings and Abraham would have follow all of them on his own son. What Abraham says in verse 5 is the key to the end of the story. He says this, “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.” Notice the last sentence. "WE will worship there, and then WE will come right back." WOW! Did I miss something? God never told him that his son would live. He told him just the opposite. The key to the outcome was Abraham's faith. He knew that if God had promised him this son, that the son arrived and this was the child that would lead to Abraham's blessing of many descendents, the God would have to resurrect Isaac. That would be the only way for God's promise to be fulfilled. What Abraham may not have known is that by his being willing to offer up his son of promise as a sacrifice that God would then be able to offer up His Son to die for our sins.

Verse 6 is also a foreshadowing of what would happen with Jesus. When Isaac was loaded down with the wood that would be what he would be sacrificed on is a symbol of Jesus carrying the cross that he would die on.

Verse 7 was probably the hardest question Abraham would ever have to answer. His son, whom he intends to sacrifice, asks him, "where's the sheep for the burnt offering?" Notice that Isaac is very aware of what it was like to offer up burnt offerings. He knew that they usually used a sheep for this offering, yet they had no sheep with them. Abraham's response is another sign of his faith. In Verse 8 he says it with these three words, "God will provide". That should be our response to questions we have about provision. When it comes to doing what God called you to do the appropriate response is God will provide.

I can speak to this firsthand. When my son, Brady, was 4 turning 5 we started praying about where to send him to school. My wife attended a mandatory meeting for Sunday school teachers at our former church. They were having a guest speaker for this training, who we later found out was the superintendant of a Christain private school. The first guest speaker ended up to be unavailable due to an injury. The guest speaker ended up being the principal of the elementary section of this school. Just before she took to the podium the Lord told Dawn this, "Where this woman works is where you are to send Brady to school." Dawn did not know who this woman was or even where she was from. Her first impression was, "I don't know where this woman lives. What if she is from Oregon or some other state?" She discovered that she was the principal at Maranatha Christian Academy. She asked the people at her table where this place was and they told her is was through Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park. Dawn came home after the meeting and told me what had happened. My response was, "I guess we know where Brady is going to school." We then sent away for information and found out how much the school would cost. Dawn thought this would be the reason why she did not think that she heard properly. I told her that if God said this is where Brady is to go then He would provide the financing for it. Praise God he has provided not only the financing for Brady but for Tiffany to attend as well.

Verses 9-10 speak to the commitment Abraham had to the instructions God has given him. He had to build the altar, tie up his son and then prepare to offer him up as the sacrifice. Praise God that the Lord stepped in and told Abraham to wait. What the Lord said to Abraham is key in verse 11, “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.” The Lord knew that Abraham was the man of faith he knew he could be. He also knew that by Abraham's actions that He could then one day sacifice His only Son.

Verse 13 shows that God did provide. I have a question here, "What was the ram doing in the hours leading up to this?" God must have been leading the ram to be in that place at that exact moment so that Abraham could see it and kill it instead of his son. How awesome is that!

Verses 16-18 show that God acknowledges the obedience of Abraham. He will be rewarded for his faith in what God instructed him to do. Nothing that Abraham owned, even his own son of promise, was unavailable for God to use for His purposes. This is exactly what God has in store for each of us if we have the faith to follow what He asks us to do and to make everything we have available to Him if He needs it for His Kingdom.

Lord I pray today that I have the faith of Abraham and I make everything I have available to You for Your purposes to be met here on earth. I pray that Your will be done on earth, just as it is in heaven. Use me Lord for what every You want and for what ever purpose You deem necessary. I thank You that You are the Lord that does provide for me and my family. I thank You for offering up Your Son as a sacrifice for the sins of all and that anyone who believes in His sacrifice will enjoy eternal life with You in heaven. PRAISE GOD FOREVER!!