Genesis: Sacrifices and Idols

Well, um another strange story from the book of Genesis for us to read this morning.

Uh what we've been saying as we've gone through these different stories in Genesis, we've been saying how these stories have layer after layer of truth.

And we come to this story, and really on the surface, I'd just rather it not be in the Bible.

I mean, you read this thing, you're like, I'm not, just not quite.

I mean, how could this, how could this be?

Like, how could how could God ask this?

I mean, if I'm reading this and sort of setting aside the fact that I've heard it or read it a million times and I'm sort of I'm coming at it freshly, and I hear this, I'm going, what?

Like he asked, he asked what?

And if it was a test, like what a twisted test.

You know, I mean, the whole thing is just extremely, extremely bizarre.

That's just me.

Maybe it's not you, maybe you're good with all of it.

I'm I'm I have a hard time with it.

Um so for a long time I had a hard time reconciling this story, reconciling God asking this of Abraham.

It just seems sort of like a messed up test in some way.

Is there not a better way, some other way to test somebody than like, hey, will you kill your child?

Um because if I heard that, and you heard that, hopefully you're checking yourself into a clinic the next day or like the next hour, right?

Like that test isn't gonna fly.

That's not gonna be an available test.

Like we can do other tests, God, but this one's not gonna be available.

And I know in James and in Hebrews and the New Testament, we're supposed to be, we are, we should be impressed with Abraham's faith.

I mean, that's what this text is very clearly, it is a test of his faith and incredible faith.

He's willing to lay down his son, right?

Like this is a test and it's incredible faith.

But I'm still stuck.

I'm still stuck with this story that seems really bizarre and this question of like, well, what kind of God is this that's asking this?

And so to know this, we have to sort of set aside the fact that we live in the United States of America in 2015, and we've taken geology classes and biology classes and environmental science classes, and we have to journey back thousands of years ago into the ancient Near East where Abraham is living, and Abraham hears this ask of God, and he doesn't hear it like we would hear it, or even how we read it, because he lives in a different, he lived in a different time and place, and there's no periodic table, and there's no access parallelism, and there's no hydraulic cycle.

And the reason why I'm mentioning these things is because religion was developing out of man's need.

And so man's growing crops, and he needs rain in a certain amount, he needs sunshine in a certain amount, and he needs children to help make the thing work.

And he doesn't want environmental disasters, and they don't have science books laying all around to know how all this whole system works.

And so the easy thing to develop, and what happened in all cultures was a religion developed that there must there must be gods, right?

There must be gods that exist and they control these factors.

And if there are gods that exist that control these factors, then surely there's some way, something we can do to influence these gods.

And when I say gods, we're talking like little g self-made gods that we just create that don't really exist.

And so we should be able to control them, right?

We always want to control gods.

We always think we can control them.

And so let's try to earn their favor.

We'll we'll give them things.

We'll give them things.

We'll sacrifice things to them.

And so these religions would develop and oh, we'll sacrifice crops.

We'll sacrifice a goat.

We'll sacrifice a cow.

We'll sacrifice a better goat, a better cow, a bigger one, a more beautiful one, a more finer one.

We'll sacrifice the best one we have to try to control these gods.

But you never know where you stand, how much sacrifice is enough?

It's a problem with religion, it's always a problem with religion.

It's always a problem with moralism, self-improvement.

How much is enough to be in good favor with God?

See, self-made gods always demand more.

Crops, animals, and then finally someone, somewhere and some cult, some religion decides, oh, I have an idea.

I mean, you're gonna sacrifice a cow.

I'm gonna sacrifice one of my children.

Like, if anything could show my loyalty and devotion to a God, it would be to sacrifice a child.

Surely this will earn the favor of the gods, and I'll get the right amount of rain and the right amount of sunshine, and my crops will grow.

He will be pleased with me finally.

What else could possibly be done to show devotion and loyalty than to sacrifice and hand over your most beloved object?

So, this is what's going on around Abraham.

So when Abraham hears this, he's not shocked.

I mean, that's the interesting thing about this story that we can kind of read over as you read the story.

He's not shocked, he's sad, but he gets on with it, doesn't he?

Like early the next morning, he goes and he does it.

For all he knew, this God who's communicating with him is like all the other gods.

And in Genesis 22, verse 3, he rose early, he saddles his donkey, he takes two of his servants, he gets his son Isaac, who is the promise.

Genesis 22:3

Like Isaac is the promise of his lineage and his legacy.

I mean, this is the child that's going to make him known.

He cuts wood and they begin to travel.

Three days later they get to Moriah.

And here we get a glimpse of faith beyond the gods of the world to a gracious God.

We get a glimpse of perhaps something going on inside of Abraham.

Maybe he saw something at Sodom when he was bargaining with God, like we talked about last week, because we get this line that he says to his servants in verse 5 stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

Like we're going and we are coming back.

And so maybe he's starting to think that you know this God is different than those gods, but he's still in this and he's still going to sacrifice his son, and God asked it.

He's gonna he'll do it, he'll do it.

His test of faith, he's gonna do it.

And so he takes the wood and he builds that altar.

And the son on the way up, he says, like, Dad, where's the lamb?

Like we're supposed to have a we're supposed to have an animal here.

Where's the lamb at?

And Abraham responds, Well, God will provide the lamb.

He builds that altar and he lays his son down, and we don't know how that worked itself out.

I'm I'm still wondering that.

Like, is that a wrestling match?

Like, at what point does Isaac figure out there is no lamb, I'm the lamb, I don't want this.

Is there wrestling here?

And he ties him down.

And then he he reaches for his knife, and this is a knife made for a massacre.

And he holds that thing up above his son.

I mean, you it's just kind of twisted, right?

And he will do this.

Abraham will absolutely do this.

Because, as far as he knows, this is what you do for the gods.

And he doesn't have the Bible, he doesn't have the scriptures to know about the character of God.

He's like learning this bit by bit, little bit by little bit.

He's learning about this character of this God that's pursuing him and speaking to him.

And God uses this cultural context to say something.

Verse 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.

That'd be, oh, wow, yeah, here I am.

Thank you, you spoke up.

And the angel said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for I now, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

So it's it's a test.

I mean, that's very clear.

I'm not trying to say it's not a test, but I'm saying within the test, God is showing Abraham something.

Because this voice could have not come, could have been a test, and he does kill a son.

There's a test.

He killed a son, right?

Like the test was, will you kill your son?

And yeah, I'll let you kill your son, and you killed your son.

There was the test.

And it could have just been a sacrifice like all the other sacrifices of children to all the other gods.

Well, why didn't that happen?

Well, that didn't happen because this God is not like those gods.

We read in verse 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.

Can you imagine the mount of gratitude and relief that his son is still there?

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.

So we asked this question, I asked this question to begin with.

What kind of God is this?

What kind of God is this?

Well, it's a God that doesn't let you sacrifice your child.

It's a different God.

This is a radically radically revolutionarily different God than any of these self-made gods.

And so three points to kind of get us to understand that.

The first one is that this God is different.

Radically, revolutionarily different than all the other gods that are being self-made and all the religions and all the cults at the time.

So whenever I think about like gods or like idolatry or something like that, I always think about the same story.

And and I think I've told this story before, and so if you've been around, I'm just sorry.

It's just it worked so good for this.

I couldn't resist it again.

It's kind of silly, but I was a I was a sophomore at the University of Georgia, and I was in a big business class.

Like big, huge auditorium, like 300-person auditorium.

And so we I get in there first, I'm sitting in the far left up toward the top, and there's this girl, and I see her, and she's over toward the right, and she's like three rows down from me, over on the right, and she is beautiful.

Oh man, I'm like creepy watching her, you know, like like if she knew how much I was watching her, it's like way on the creepy level, and then you're trying to, I'm being creepy, I don't look at her anymore, but then you're looking at her more.

And and uh, guys, you know what I'm talking about, and you're like, I'm creepy, don't be creepy.

Girls, you know what I'm talking about, is maybe you've seen the creepy guy looking at you.

And so uh I then I noticed like class got out like first day, and we walked and we went to the same bus stop.

Like, well, you know, wow.

I mean, this is like God is doing something here, like I'm you know, spiritualizing everything.

We get on the bus, same bus.

Can you believe that same bus?

Can you believe we go to the south side of the campus?

We'd off at the same stop.

She doesn't know creepy guy is like right behind her, figuring out all like that we're on the same route.

She has no idea, she's not noticing me.

Let's be honest.

Nobody's noticing me, but she was noticeable.

And so I'm kind of behind her.

We go into the same building.

So, same class, same bus stop, same bus, same route, same building, and we didn't end up in the same class there.

That would have been, that would have been, I would have fainted, but we that was enough.

Like, this is, I mean, this, you know, the Lord is working this out.

I go home that day to my roommates.

You won't believe this.

I saw this girl, she's unbelievable, with the same, same walking route, same bus stop, same bus, same building.

It's unbelievable.

And so, you know, we start as roommates do, we start to create our plan of how I'm gonna approach her and win her over.

And I'm thinking about her all the time, but I'm too nervous to go talk to her.

But I'm thinking I'm thinking, like, I we're married, like we have kids, like where are we gonna live?

She's so fantastic, she's wonderful, she doesn't do anything wrong.

It's probably the best relationship I've ever had.

Is everything unto the point where I talk to her because she was great.

And it took me a couple weeks to talk to her, and I was trying to like position myself where she would notice, like, oh, yeah, that guy, you know, we're in the same class.

And so finally, on the bus, I'm like, hey, are you are you in my echo are you in economics?

And she has no idea.

She's like, Yeah, she had no idea that I'm in the economics class, and I'm pretty sure about that.

And so we started to um we started to to ride together, and I'm I'm telling you, those first couple days, I am, I'm consumed.

I'm controlled by her.

I mean, literally, I'm thinking about her all the time, like when I'm working out, when I'm in class, you know, I'm doing my devotion, like it's all about her.

I mean, everything is about her.

And then maybe you know the end of the story because maybe you had the end of the story, and I get to know her, and then like a couple weeks later, like that was it.

Like, I don't think we're even sitting together on the bus.

You know, that that was it.

It was the end of it, right?

Like, she was a little g god.

This is how little g gods work out.

You see them, you're adored with them, you're enamored with them, you make sacrifices for them, you are controlled by them, and then you get to know them, and then they never live up to what they promise.

Bless her heart, wherever she's at, she's probably a wonderful girl.

And these things, these gods that can control us, right?

They they take things from us.

They take our thinking, they take our freedom, they take our peace, they take our contentment.

I mean, these can even be good things.

These can be good desires that we elevate.

I've heard before, if you want to know the God you serve, that you could probably just look at your browser history.

I've heard that before.

I've also heard if you want to know the God you served, then just look at how you spend your solitude.

Like when you're by yourself, what are the things you think about and the things you do, the things you long for?

I mean, my browser history is pretty interesting.

I was kind of I was looking at it this week and I'll share a little bit of it.

Aaron knows it pretty well.

He fixed my computer, and so he probably laughed a lot.

Uh I mean it's just all, you know, it's like your browser history, right?

It's just all over.

Like one moment you're like reading a devotion on Mockingbird or whatever devotional site you like, and then you're buying a shower curtain on Amazon.

Like, literally, this is me.

This is my browser history.

I'm reading an article on faith, and then I'm like researching Genesis, and then I'm buying a shower curtain, and then I look out the window and it's beautiful out, and I I think about, man, I mean, like, I want to go to the beach, so I like type in Hilton Head Island and look at a couple pictures, you know, and then I go, oh man, it's about time to start going to the lake.

And so I want to see a couple pictures of some boats.

I like boats, I've told you that before.

I'm enamored, I'm infatuated with boats, and so I look up cobalt boats.

Don't know if you're familiar with cobalt boats.

You're probably not.

I am.

See, that that's the problem here is I am very familiar with cobalt boats, and I look through all the different kinds of cobalt boats, right?

And you're just you're doing maybe online's not for you.

Maybe, maybe that's not where this hits you.

Maybe it's just image.

Maybe like the perfect family.

Like the presentation of the perfect family, the presentation of a perfect marriage or the perfect body, like just a little more beautiful, just a little more affluence, a little more uh professional acclaim.

Maybe it's just like the next purchase, like that God, that little g God.

Like materialism, right?

What a great little g God that we just give ourselves to over and over and over again.

I mean, I do this.

Right?

We find ourselves thinking about something and researching it.

I mean, that's the internet's given us this privilege of just researching some materialistic object forever.

And what does it demand of us?

Well, it steals today.

Like it will literally steal today from you.

It will steal your peace, it will steal your contempt.

It's asking you to sacrifice these things for it.

That's what gods do.

Gods always demand you to sacrifice to them.

See, for Abraham, this was this was a test of faith, no doubt about it.

He was giving up something that was supposed to be his path, legacy, and lineage.

But in the test, he saw something.

He saw something so radically different from all the other gods, and it was all the other gods demand sacrifices to them.

And this God provided a sacrifice for him.

This brings us to point number two.

This God provides the sacrifice.

The ram in the thicket is a picture.

It's not a matter of us becoming good enough or continuing to sacrifice more and more and more and more.

God provides the means of the relationship to be secure.

It's a picture of redemption and unconditional love in the flesh, and it's a picture toward Jesus being the sacrifice, being crushed for us, our sins put upon him, his righteousness given to us that secures the relationship, so we don't make endless sacrifices to God in order to be his beloved.

He made a sacrifice for us that we would be his beloved.

I mean, I don't like a story like this, really.

I mean, I look at the story in so many ways, it's kind of like I'm uncomfortable with it, and then it makes kind of makes some demands on me to question like what are my gods that are demanding sacrifices.

There's so many levels here that I don't like, but I just realized this, like, I need to repent of these things, these gods.

Maybe you have a lot of baggage with that word.

Maybe you've been around church or something, and you're like, uh, or you saw a guy outside of a Falcons game with a repent sign, or you have baggage.

I used to have baggage with this word.

I didn't even like to use it.

It's just such a beautiful word because what it is, it's just it's us having this heart transition and communication to God of like, hey, here's who I am, and this isn't good.

I don't want to be this.

It's not working out.

And I want to confess this over to you.

I want to repent of it.

I want to turn away from it.

I want you to help me with this.

I want to rejoice that you're enough for me and that in my repentance I'm still secure.

And we need to hear ourselves say it.

I heard a pastor friend of mine said that recently, and I was like, he said that, and it's true.

I need to hear myself say to God, I am materialistic.

I need to hear it out loud.

My ears need to hear me say, God, I am materialistic.

I love things, I find personal value in things that will burn.

It makes no sense, and I do it.

Like I need to hear myself say that.

I need to hear myself say, yet you are enough for me, yet you actually bring peace and contentment.

And so I repent of this and rejoice that your grace is enough for this and all of the mess that I am.

And then lastly, point number three, our sacrifice, our sacrifice, and there is one, in case you were getting nervous.

It's one of response to his sacrifice to us.

So it's not a sacrifice in order to be approved or beloved.

It is a sacrifice because we are approved and beloved.

And so Romans 12, 1 through 3 kind of says this beautifully, especially if you read the few chapters leading up to it, and Paul just laying out for us how sufficient Jesus is, how secure we are in Jesus, and how God has done this for us, even though we were dead in our sin and we had nothing to do with it, and his grace and he came after us.

And after saying all of that, Paul writes, I appeal to you therefore, because of all of that, because all that is true, and you are secure and you are at rest, and you don't have to worry about your position before God.

Because of that, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So there's a response to this.

The response is, oh, I am I am secure.

So in my security, in my freedom, and my belovedness, I respond back.

And you say, have my life.

Right?

I mean, I mean, this is the truth of this, is that you are no longer defined by, you are no longer governed by these little gods that were or are in your life.

You are a child of the great one true God.

That's who you are.

And he is radically different than any of these gods.

You are defined by his work for you, his sacrifice for you, the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and nothing else.

You have never-ending assurance as his beloved.

See, now, now, Romans 12, 1 through 3, now that truth and his spirit in you gives you life.

It creates gratitude and godliness and worship.

So, what kind of story is this?

If I can sum it up in one sentence here at the end, what kind of story is this?

It's perfectly contextual at the time to show all of us throughout all of time that into this mess of our gods, the God of grace and truth, steps in.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you do not ask of us endless sacrifices to you that we might stay in your favor.

Thank you that we are at rest in your favor.

Not because of what we've done, but because of what you have done.

We would even confess that we don't have that faith.

It is very difficult for us to give up the things that define us.

And yet we know that freedom is on the other side of our hearts.

Letting go of these things, these gods.

And this morning we said, in your grace and in your mercy and your forgiveness, that uh while we admit that these things are in our lives, the service and sacrifice to little gods that we let steal things from us, that even in all of that, the blood of Jesus is sufficient.

That you are enough, you are enough for all the times we have given our hearts over to lesser gods.

Would you help us in our lack of faith?

Would you increase our faith and help us to trust in you in greater ways?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.