Faith Tested

Genesis 22

We come today to the most perplexing and powerful episodes in the life of Abraham. If we were reading Genesis 22 for the first time it would jolt us, confound us, and maybe even anger us. That God would command Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering seems inconceivable. It seems opposed to the very nature of God. And Abraham’s unflinching obedience astounds us. How could he do what God had asked? F.B. Meyer rightly said of this chapter: “So long as men live in this world, they will turn to this story with unwaning interest. There is only one scene in history by which it is surpassed; that where the Great Father gave His Isaac to a death from which there was no deliverance.” (quoted by Ligon Duncan).

Truly, we can only understand the full meaning of this story when we see that it is ultimately a foreshadowing of how God sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins upon the cross and be raised from the dead to give us life. Next week in conjunction with observing the Lord’s Supper I want to focus on God’s provision for our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. But this week I want us to think about what it teaches us about faith in God.

Please listen as I read our scripture: Genesis 22:1-19:

¹ Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. ⁵ Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” ⁶ 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 the two of them walked on together. ⁷ Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

⁹ Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay 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 stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” ¹³ Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ Then 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 thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. ¹⁸ In your seed all the nations of the earth shall 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.

Genesis 22 is about God and His relationship with a man of faith, Abraham.

1. God’s Test (Gen. 22:1-2)

First, notice the opening verse, “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”” We last saw Abraham in a tent by the well of Beersheba in the wilderness with his son Isaac. There he worshiped and “called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God” (Gen. 21:33). We don’t know how much time has passed from Genesis 21, but most scholars think it must have been ten to twenty years. In this chapter Isaac is no longer a freshly weaned child, he is a young man with strength enough to carry the wood for the burnt offering up a mountain (Gen. 22:6) and wise enough to ask his father about the missing lamb for the sacrifice (Gen. 22:7).

When we read, “Now it came about after these things,” I believe Moses is pointing us back not just to Genesis 21, but to the whole of Abraham’s walk of faith with God since Genesis 12. In fact there are interesting parallels between Genesis 12 and Genesis 22 (pointed out by Dr. Robert S. Rayburn). In Genesis 12 we read that God called to Abraham and said, “Get out of your country … To a land that I will show you.” Here God uses the same verb (יָלַךְ yālaḵ) to command Abraham, “go to the land of Moriah, … on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” In both places Abraham is called to go but not told precisely where. In both places a series of terms heightens the drama. In Genesis 12 God told Abraham to leave “your country, … your family, and … your father’s house.” In Genesis 22 God told Abraham to take “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” In both cases Abraham responded obediently in faith and was rewarded with promises of a glorious posterity in very similar terms:

Genesis 12:2-3 – “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 22:17-18 –“blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

In both places we also have the record of Abraham building an altar.

At the beginning and at the end we find Abraham trusting God and demonstrating his faith by his obedience to God’s very difficult commands. He believed God’s word to him and acted on it. And because Abraham is one of the primary models of faith in scripture, he is our example that we also can believe God’s word and in believing, obey what He commands.

Moses gives us the insight at the very beginning that this is a test. He writes, “God tested Abraham” (Gen. 22:1). Why did God test Abraham? At the end of the test the Lord says to Abraham, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Gen. 22:12). Does that mean God did not know this already? Of course not! God’s tests of faith are not exploratory: “Let’s see what you’re made of.” God wasn’t double-checking to find out whether or not Abraham’s faith was genuine enough. He knew. God Himself had given and shaped Abraham’s faith by promises, struggles, forgiveness, and doing the impossible over many years. In Genesis 15, God told Abraham that he would have a son, a seed from his own body. The Bible says there, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness ” (Gen. 15:6). Abraham had seen that promise come to pass when Isaac, the promised son, was born miraculously to a 90-year-old mother and 100-year-old dad (Lee Eclov).

In the New Testament James gives us some insight into why God may test us:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4).

When God tests us, it is to manifest some godly quality in us and to mature us. Peter agrees when he writes,

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 1:6-7).

The test is to prove our faith (not to Him, but to us) or to improve us (perfecting and maturing us) by removing the dross so that the precious gold of our tested faith will give glory to God. Whether we pass the test or fail the test, God’s purposes will still be accomplished. If we pass the test, it reveals the quality of our faith. If we fail the test, it shows us where we need to trust Him more. God’s tests will often pull out from under us all the props we lean on until He alone is left (Cole).

Abraham’s was certainly a difficult test: “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you” (Gen. 22:2). To an ancient Middle Easterner, “a burnt offering” suggested a process: first cutting the offering’s throat, then dismemberment, and then a sacrifice by fire in which the body parts were completely consumed on the altar. . . God was asking him to act against common sense, his natural affections, and his lifelong hope. (Hughes).

As we read through this account, we see that it says nothing about Abraham’s emotional reaction to God’s command. I think the reason is that it was quite unnecessary to say anything. We instinctively know what this must have meant to Abraham. His first reaction must have been incredulity. How could God be asking this of him? And yet, the voice of God was unmistakable; Abraham had heard God speak many times. He had learned to trust God’s word.

So we have seen God’s test of Abraham’s faith. Next we see …

2. Abraham’s Response (Gen. 22:3-10)

God knew that Abraham loved Isaac. I’m sure that, like any parent, Abraham would rather have sacrificed himself than his son. But even more, Isaac represented the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. God had said that through Isaac He would bless Abraham’s descendants. If Isaac died, the hope for the promised Savior died; the hope for all the nations died!

So Abraham was faced with a seeming contradiction: He knew that God promised him that Isaac was the promised heir. He also knew that God was now telling him to kill Isaac. Do you know how Abraham resolved this? The New Testament writer of Hebrews tells us:

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (Hebrews 11:17-19).

Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if need be. So, he went ahead in obedience to this incredibly difficult command!

Abraham’s response to the word of God was immediate obedience. Did you notice the indications of Abraham’s faith in this story?

He did not delay. ” So Abraham rose early in the morning” (Gen. 22:3).
He made all the necessary preparations. He “saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering.”
He traveled three days to get there. He “… arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.” (Gen. 22:3-4).
Abraham told his servants, ” Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” (Gen. 22:5).
After Isaac asked where the lamb was for the burnt offering, Abraham said, ” My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Gen. 22:8).
In Genesis 22:9 after they arrive at the designated place, “Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.”
Then, most amazingly, “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Gen. 22:10).

Obedience to the word of God is always the response of faith. If Abraham debated this in his mind, the text doesn’t record it. It shows him as simply obeying God. How did he do that? Steven Cole points out some possible reasons why Abraham could obey so unflinchingly:

Because this was the next step in a lifelong process of obeying the word of God. He had long since given himself over to follow the Lord; so at this point, there was no turning back.
Because he saw this as an act of worship (Gen. 22:5). His focus was not on his great sacrifice, but on his great God. Worship is at the heart of faithful obedience.
Because of his unwavering confidence in God. Abraham said to his servants, “the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Gen. 22:5). He planned on coming back with Isaac! He wasn’t just trying to placate Isaac when he told him, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” He believed it! He knew that God could not be unfaithful. God had repeatedly given His word that Isaac was the son of the promise, so Abraham knew that if God required him to kill Isaac, then God would raise him from the dead.

Have you learned to obey the word of God? God wants to bring each one of us to the place where we believe Him completely, where we surrender everything to Him even what is most precious to us. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27). Again Jesus said, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:24-25). When you’ve surrendered all to Him as Lord, then you’ll obey Him faithfully, even when He asks you to do that which is most difficult.

Finally today we will end with …

3. God’s Provision (Gen. 22:11-14)

As soon as Abraham stretched out his hand with the knife to slay his son (Gen. 22:10), God called to him and prevented him from carrying out the sacrifice of Isaac. Genesis 22:11-12 says,

But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

In one very important sense, the sacrifice God required of Abraham was offered because God looks on the heart: you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me ” (Gen. 22:12). On that altar as Abraham lifted the knife, the son of Abraham was as good as dead. God would have seen nothing more if Isaac died. Isaac was consecrated to God as surely as if his body had been consumed by fire. So God stopped the test. Abraham’s faith had been proved real.

Then God provided the substitute: “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.” (Gen. 22:13). God required sacrifice; He provided the sacrifice.

Abraham’s response was to confirm his faith: “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”” (Gen. 22:14). Abraham utters a name of God: Jehovah-Jireh, Yahweh Yireh, the Lord sees, the Lord provides because on the mountain of the Lord it will be made clear.

We cannot help but be moved by the picture of this story. And yet as we will discuss further next week, there is a message which goes beyond it. For on the mount of Calvary, there was no substitute for the only begotten Son of God. The cry from heaven, “Do not lay your hand on the lad,” never comes. Instead Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). There is just darkness as the Lamb of God is slain for the sin of the world. The Father forsakes Him. The Son gives His life willingly as a substitute for all who trust in Him.

Have you believed on Jesus Christ? Do you believe that your sins deserve the wrath of God? Do you know that Christ took your sins upon Himself as He died on the cross? Do you believe God raised Him from the dead and He gives eternal life to all who call on His name? Call on Jesus today. He will save you because He is the living One who was God’s substitutionary sacrifice for your sins.

When we see God’s great love for us as seen in His not sparing His own Son, but giving Him up for us all, our response should be, as Isaac Watts put it, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Give yourself and all that is precious to you to the Lord. He will save you and give you great joy, now and for eternity.