Abraham & Isaac

I. Introduction
A. Genesis 22:1–19 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 boy 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”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 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 his 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.
B. You know the story. Abraham and his wife Sarah were unable to have children. Nonetheless, God promised them that their descendants would be as many as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. Even after many more years passed, no child had come.
1. When Abraham was 86 and Sarah 76 years old, Sarah thought she’d help God fulfill His promise by giving her servant Hagar to Abraham, and though baby Ishmael was born, it only created worse problems and God said the promised child would come through Sarah.
2. Finally, when Abraham was 100, and Sarah 90, God blessed Sarah’s womb with the promised son, Isaac.
3. So, Isaac was not just their son, not just their only son, but the joy and hope of their lives.
4. It is extremely difficult of anyone to lose a child, but losing an only child, and losing the child who is the key to your future, this takes this loss to a whole different level.
5. And one more thing: God didn’t take Isaac. He asked Abraham himself to do the deed.
II. I think it’s safe to say that what God asked Abraham to do was more difficult than anything God has asked any of us to do.
A. And yet he did it. He took the knife to slaughter his son, and only God’s intervention stopped him.
B. God gave Abraham an incredible gift.
1. Not only a son to continue his line, but a great nation, and a great land, and also a promise that the whole world would be blessed through it all.
2. But Abraham knew that it was even more than that. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham understood that the true fulfillment of these promises was a heavenly land (Heb.11:10, 16).
3. So when God gave them the baby Isaac, He was giving perhaps the best gift anyone had ever been given.
4. And then, when Isaac was a young man, God asked Abraham to give Isaac back.
C. Now this only happened once in the Bible, but it’s clear that there’s a pattern: God sometimes gives us a precious gift and then takes it back, or asks us to give it back. “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” (Job 1:21) God gave 10 kids & great wealth to Job, but in one day took it all away.
1. God gave Rachel and Joseph to Jacob, but then took them away.
2. God gave Joseph a place of honor in Jacob’s household, but then took it away.
3. Then He gave Joseph a place of honor in Potiphar’s household, and took it away.
4. Jesus gave His disciples the power to cast out demons, but then He took it away. (Mt.10:1, 17:16)
5. God gave Mary and Martha a wonderful brother, and then He took him away (John 11:1-44).
D. In the 1993 movie about Abraham, with Richard Harris, as Abraham lays Isaac upon the altar, the young man asks his father, “Is there anything the Lord might not require of you, Father?” And Abraham somberly answers “No.”
1. The worst loss of all was when God gave the world a Savior, and then took Him away. And His disciples were shattered. They felt like their whole world had caved in.
E. Many of us have experienced heart-wrenching losses. God gave us precious things. But then God asked us to give up those precious things: spouse, health, child, parent, sibling, best friend, our youth, our beauty, our strength, our mind, our job, our acceptance.
F. It may seem like God is heartless in doing this, but the opposite is true. He cares so much about us that He only does this when we need it, and He gives us many helps to know how to think about it.
G. For instance, the story of Abraham and Isaac.
1. How many of you have ever heard the expression, “Family is everything!”?
2. It’s understandable that people say that, because God gives us such a natural affection for our family, and family is such an important thing in life.
3. How many of you have ever heard the expression, “Winning is everything!”?
4. People who operate that way in the sports world are exalted. A player who will do anything to win is the kind of person you want on your team.
5. Well, I hate to be a party-pooper, but both of these are terrible lies.
6. Family is not everything; winning is not everything. Only GOD is everything.
7. And those who think family or winning or anything else is everything are doomed by that belief.
8. That’s why Jesus said, “Whoever loves father, mother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37
9. Is family a bad thing? Of course not! Family is a wonderful thing! And God commands us to love and cherish our families and take care of them. But family is a bad god. I can survive without my son, my daughter, my wife, my father or my mother, my friends, my house, my job, my country, my arm, my eye, or even without my life, but I cannot survive without my Savior.
10. And this is why we must not treat things like family as if they are everything.
11. That’s why God asked Abraham to give up his son Isaac, and then said to him, “Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (Gen.22:12)
a. (Some people ask why God couldn’t just look into Abraham’s heart to see that he feared God. But that’s not the point here. This process of giving up Isaac cemented Abraham’s fear of the Lord.)
H. How was Abraham able to do this? Abraham could do it because of faith.
1. Heb.11:6 tells us that faith means believing that God rewards those who seek Him. In other words, people with faith are people who know that the path of trusting and obeying God is always the path of flourishing.
2. As Jesus said in Lk.6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” You see, God always outgives us. If you believe that, you want to give.
3. And in Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
4. A person of true faith believes this: that whatever you are called to give up in this life, it will be given back to you a hundredfold, and then after death, you will enjoy eternal life.
5. And, if a person does not have true faith, it is good for him as well, because it exposes his lack of faith. If you are not a true Christian, but just think you are, then it’s actually better you realize that NOW than go along thinking you’re safe. If your soul is in danger, it’s much better to know your soul’s in danger. Then you can do something about it.
III. (Resurrection)
A. Heb.11 tells us that Abraham obeyed God and lifted his knife to sacrifice Isaac because he trusted God’s promises.
1. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. – Hebrews 11:17-19
2. You see, Abraham knew that God had promised to make him a great nation through Isaac, so he knew Isaac had to survive in order for God to keep His word. How else could God fulfill His promise of a great nation through the boy and also command that the boy be killed?
3. So Abraham was thinking that even if he killed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead in order to fulfill His promise. In the face of such a horrific request, he didn’t lose his head. I’m sure he was confused, but he didn’t let it all compromise his confidence in God’s promises. He held firm.
B. None of us had perfect earthly fathers. But most of us can at least imagine having such a wonderful father that if he asks us for something we’d be glad to give it – not just because we would be eager to help him, but also because we know that, whatever he’s up to, we are going to get the better end of the deal. If he takes my plate of food, he’s going to bring me back something even better. If he borrows my car, he’s going to return it washed, polished, filled with gas, with new brakes, an oil change, and a tune-up.
1. That’s the kind of heavenly Father you have! If God demands something from you, YOU are the one who’s going to benefit.
2. Think about Abraham and Isaac’s trip back home. Suddenly everything which was confusing now made sense. There was not just relief, but sheer joy, and a bond of love which could not have been forged any other way.
3. As you walk toward your Moriah, just remember what it’s going to be like on your way home!
C. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’re always going to understand it all right away.
1. I have told you about my story of not facing my pain, and how God convicted me that I needed to face my pain.
2. Most of us don’t deal with pain in a healthy way. Some get angry and feel betrayed. Some blame others. Some feel sorry for themselves. Some feel hopeless. Some get anxious and panicky. Some get fearful and paranoid. Some detach and get apathetic. Some feel abandoned & unloved.
3. The way I always dealt with it was by locking it up down in the dungeon of my heart, and getting busy with other things. But after I did that enough times, there was a constant low murmur of wailing emanating from deep in my heart, and I didn’t even know what it was coming from.
4. First, a friend loved me enough to point this out to me.
5. Then God really rubbed my face in it at a presbytery retreat with a speaker who spoke about how pastors often don’t face their pain but just try to avoid the temptations of sinful escapes.
a. It was as if he was speaking right to me. I was sitting there trying with all my might to refrain from bursting out in loud sobs. I knew I just had to deal with the pain in my heart.
6. The first thing I did was take an inventory of my pain. I came up with 7-8 sources of pain.
7. Then I began to take each of these before the Lord, which I’d never done before. I prayed, “Lord, why? Why did you let this happen? What good purpose could there possibly be?”
8. And, amazingly, one by one, God began to show me how ultimately He had blessed me through each of these painful realities. He showed me that in each case, He was not depriving me or harming me, but blessing me because of His goodness and love for me.
9. I also told you that there was one exception, one major source of pain which never made sense to me. It was my parents’ divorce when I was 16. It still didn’t really add up. I lost so much from the divorce, and even after years of prayer and seeking the Lord I could think of only a few modest benefits it brought. The negatives still seemed to outweigh the positives. For years now I’ve worn my dad’s wedding ring on my pinky to remind me to ask God to show me.
10. Well, I wanted to tell you that last month I had a breakthrough. I was thinking about my dad, and appreciating the ways God used him in my life, and thinking about all the qualities of my dad which had inspired me and impacted me as a husband, a father, and a pastor.
11. And then suddenly I realized that almost all of those qualities had come to my dad as a result of the divorce. My father was radically humbled and broken by the divorce, and it made him aware of the fact that he had major blind spots which he was unaware of. He became a person who was eager to hear feedback, and determined to work out relational issues instead of ignoring them – a big mistake he’d made in his marriage. He also became almost fanatical about putting family relationships as a priority, another mistake he’d made.
12. And suddenly I had my answer. God took away my parents’ marriage, He took away my siblings, who went to live in another house. And yet in return, He taught me things I needed to succeed as a husband, father and pastor.
13. My parents’ divorce, painful as it was, may well have prevented me from getting a divorce.
14. My parents’ divorce was definitely a death in my life. But it led to many resurrections.
D. I am very reluctant to talk about myself in my sermons, because I want to point to Jesus, not to me. But I share this as an illustration of the point.
1. Even though it took me 52 years to understand it, I can now see how God blessed me through my parents’ divorce.
2. Job said the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But he said that at the beginning of the book, when everything had just been taken away. If you were to fairly sum up the book, you would have to add something, The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, and when the Lord takes away, He gives back even more! Because that’s exactly what He did with Job.
3. And that’s what He did with Abraham! And that’s what He did with the disciples when He took away Jesus! And that’s what He does for us when He takes something away.
E. It has long been recognized that the story of Abraham & Isaac points forward to the story of our heaven Father giving up His Son on the altar of the cross.
1. You may have heard that there’s a new movie in the theaters about the story of Abraham & Isaac, called His Only Son, a title which picks up on Gen.22:12, “You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” But it also picks up on John 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
2. And in the movie, at the moment when God tells Abraham to spare Isaac, many pictures flash on the screen in quick succession. One of those pictures is of a stone being rolled away from a tomb. This isn’t surprising because in a sense Isaac was raised from the dead, and foreshadowed the resurrection of Jesus.
3. Jesus gave up His life, and then it was given back. And now He calls us to do the same, to give up our lives in the confidence that whatever He takes from us He will more than pay back.
4. So, now it’s our turn, it’s our turn to show the world that this works!
5. What has God taken away from you? It hurts, doesn’t it?
a. Well, do you know you can make the hurt worse? We sing the hymn, If Thou But Suffer God To Guide Thee, which says, “Our cross and trials do but press the heavier for our bitterness.”
b. We make it worse when we get angry, when we get resentful, when we feel sorry for ourselves.
c. But we can also make it better. We can lighten our burden and sooth our pain. We do this by remembering God’s promises, that whenever God takes something away, He is going to either give it back or give us something even better.
6. Every little part of you that dies will be resurrected. When He requires a piece of you to be cast to the ground, it is like a seed which will grow up and produce much fruit.