Genesis 22

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're in Genesis chapter twenty two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead and turn your Bibles there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to explore this topic after walking through some difficult circumstances with Abraham and Sarah for the last several weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Watching their faith tested over and over again and really watching them fail over and over again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've talked about their failures, their lack of faith in God's promises.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen Sarah laugh at the promises of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen Abraham and Sarah try to take things into their own hands and sort of make the promises of God happen in their own way, not God's away because of their lack of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've even seen multiple instances of Abraham and Sarah lying, thinking they were protecting themselves because they did not believe and trust in the promises of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I don't want to sell Abraham and Sarah too short everywhere they went.

[SPEAKER_00]: They set up altars to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They worship God.

[SPEAKER_00]: They let people know who they were following and who they were worshiping.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's just like us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can follow God and pursue God and eat at the same time make mistakes along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Abraham's mistakes and Sarah's mistakes are recorded for us by Moses in the book of Genesis letting us know they have failed time and time again to trust God in the difficult tests of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: When it really got tough, they often did not have enough faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we've seen those mistakes along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today, Abraham is going to face his biggest test of faith yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it's going to be a big test of faith for us too.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not familiar with the chapter, we are about to read.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a doozy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a difficult one and it may test your faith just as it tested Abraham's faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll see what I mean as we read through this together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just pause and talk to the author before we read his book and then we'll read through this chapter together.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts for the next several minutes.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, help us to learn what you have to share.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help us to learn more about you, about your plan, about your sovereignty, about how you have orchestrated things and just a perfect way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray that you would teach us what you want us to know, not just about you, but how you want us to live God, that this week we would live a little bit differently with more faith than you because of what we're about to walk through together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in your name we pray, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Genesis twenty two, we're gonna read, starting to verse one, Moses is writing and he says this, some time later, God tested Abraham's faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham, God called.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he replied, here I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next morning, Abraham got up early.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him along with his son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac, then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: God had told him about on the third day of their journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stay here with the donkey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham told the servants, the boy and I will travel a little farther.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will worship there and then we will come right back.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders while he himself carried the fire in the knife.

[SPEAKER_00]: 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, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?

[SPEAKER_00]: God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son, Abraham answered, and they both walked on together.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it that 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: At that moment, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham, yes, Abraham replied, here I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't lay a hand on the boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: The angel said, do not hurt him in any way.

[SPEAKER_00]: For now I know that you truly fear God, you have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns and a thicket.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son, Abraham named the place Yahweh Ira, which means the Lord will provide.

[SPEAKER_00]: To this day, people still use that name as a proverb.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what the Lord says.

[SPEAKER_00]: 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will multiply your descendants beyond number.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: And through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed, all because you have obeyed me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then they return to the servants and travel back to Bershiba.

[SPEAKER_00]: where Abraham continued to live.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you notice any potential problems with this passage?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some challenges, maybe, that you have to wrestle with.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can think of a couple, and I probably don't have to point them out, but it's what we're gonna talk about today.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I can understand why someone might read this chapter and think, wow, that's not a God I want to serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: A God that would ask that of one of his most faithful followers and put him through that psychological torture of having to go through that experience, how could a good God do such an evil thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't human sacrifice terrible and awful?

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if God knew that he wasn't going to let him follow through with it, why would he actually put him through that experience?

[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, if you look elsewhere in the Bible, you will see that human sacrifice to God is a detestable thing, Deuteronomy twelve says, you must not worship the Lord your God, the way the other nations worship their God, for they perform for their God's every detestable act that the Lord hates.

[SPEAKER_00]: They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to the gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then in Leviticus eighteen, do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molek for you must not bring shame on the name of your God, I am the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jeremiah seven says they have built pagan shrines at Tofeth, the garbage dump and the valley of Ben Hinnam, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have never commanded such a horrible deed.

[SPEAKER_00]: It never even crossed my mind to command such a thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's God speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could God say that?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could God say I've never commanded such a thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't he just commanded in Genesis chapter twenty two that Abraham would sacrifice his son?

[SPEAKER_00]: These are difficult questions aren't they?

[SPEAKER_00]: These are tough questions that we have to wrestle with and I think sometimes when we read the Bible we have a tendency to come to a chapter like Genesis twenty two and go, I don't know let's move on a few.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just skip over that part.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today I want to encourage us to lean into those difficult questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: the tough questions, the one where we read the Bible and we say, how could a good God do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: God's a big God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he's real, if he's true, if he's sovereign, if he's the Creator, he can handle the hardest of questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this is really his word in the Bible, it can handle the toughest of skepticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: There have been times when I have come across something in scripture that I haven't understood and there's been that little fear in the back of my mind that if I pull the thread of that sweater I may not like what I find at the end and maybe it's going to cast some doubts in my mind and yet every time I do dig into it and I follow the evidence where it leads I find that it only strengthens my faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen it in many, many other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: where they've had doubts and questions, they've wrestled with it and they've approached it from a skeptical mind, but they've been willing to follow where the evidence leads without a predetermined idea in their mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in my personal experience, the people that have done that, they always end up trusting and believing more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if he's a big God, if he's really real, the real crit, he can handle it.

[SPEAKER_00]: His word can handle it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to encourage you to actually lean into the tough and the difficult questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there are some questions where we just have to say, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't fully understand it and that's going to be okay for now because I just don't have enough information.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all right.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are some questions where when we dig into it, we realize, wow, there are really good answers for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what seemed like an insurmountable problem in my brain and with my faith before, actually once I know the whole story and the context, maybe I talk with some people who know more about it than I do, or I do some research, and I find out more I realize, oh, actually there are some really good reasons for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe what God is doing in Genesis, is actually really makes sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: and has a purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, maybe by the end of today's message, you will walk away with your faith strengthened and encouraged instead of questioning why would God do such a thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not wrong to question why.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we need to go research it and study and figure out, okay, what's really going on here?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to present to you that information today so that you can know and understand what is happening in Genesis chapter twenty two.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are two main things that I want to show you.

[SPEAKER_00]: two main things that this is that help us to understand what's going on and why.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first one Moses gives us right at the beginning of the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: He opens it this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we know what's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says in verse one, some time later, God tested Abraham's faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is an important sentence because it sets the expectations for the rest of the story and the rest of the chapter.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even that sometime later is following this series of events where Abraham's faith has been tested and he's failed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham and Sarah have again and again failed in their biggest tests of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now sometime later, God is testing their faith again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what this is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a test of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was never a request or a command from God that he was expected to follow through on, of course, God knew that.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was only ever a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was almost eight years ago that my family and I moved here to St.

[SPEAKER_00]: Louis to work at this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember like it was yesterday, my first week or two here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was sitting in my office right over there when all of a sudden I heard the strangest noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know what it meant.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'd never actually heard anything like it before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as far as I knew, we were under attack and the air raid sirens were going off, and it was time to duck and cover.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it was about eleven a.m.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no one bothered to tell me that we have tornado sirens here, and they test them once a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I didn't know, do I need to go to the basement?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does this place even have a basement?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I go?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do I do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Until someone told me, oh, it's just a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what this is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses tells us the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a test of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's never actually meant to go through with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is only a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we all know that looking back.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what did Abraham think?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did Abraham know this was a test?

[SPEAKER_00]: The text doesn't really tell us that he struggled with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't say that he stayed up all night, wrestled with it, we've been in crying and praying.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know how conflicted he was about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't seem to have told anybody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just says, early the next morning, he got up.

[SPEAKER_00]: He took a couple of servants.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got the firewood for the supplies.

[SPEAKER_00]: They headed along the journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: It took them three days to get to the base of the mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: They get to a certain point.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Isaac has to go on alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse five says, stay here with the donkey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham says, the boy and I will travel a little farther.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will worship there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we will come right back.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will come right back.

[SPEAKER_00]: To Abraham knows this is a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't know how it's going to play out, but he believes that Isaac will come back with him somehow.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you might say, well, how do you know that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he was lying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't really believe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was just saying that to the servant so they wouldn't be worried about anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says, we will come right back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's how I know that because Hebrews chapter eleven fills in the details for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews eleven says it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham who had received God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham thought along the way that he had to help God's promises along.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet here he's willing to go all the way and actually sacrifice his son because he finally believes in the promises.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what he believed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse nineteen, Abraham reasons that if Isaac died, even if he killed his son, God was able to bring him back to life again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the death.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Abraham did not believe that God was asking him to murder his son.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is crucial.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham believed God was asking him to participate in a miracle.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Abraham thought this was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham knew this was a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't know anything about any kind of substitute lamb being provided or anything like that, but he thought to himself, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a test of God, but God has been faithful all the way up until this time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't always been faithful to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to believe him, I'm going to trust him, and I think God is going to prove his great power by bringing my son back to life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Abraham thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was wrong about his understanding, but that's what he thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was going to be a miracle of God, and there was a miracle that happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't the miracle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was expecting, but he finally trusts in the promises of God and believes that if God wants to demonstrate

[SPEAKER_00]: his great power through the death and resurrection of his son Isaac, then that's what he will do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was a test of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there was this supernatural resolution to the crisis in front of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond what Abraham could have imagined at the last minute, with the angel of the Lord stepping in and providing a lamb.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just as a sidebar here, I want us to stop and think about for a moment in our lives, the struggles that we go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: There may be some difficult things that have popped up in your life that you don't know how to interpret, and you might be asking yourself, God, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: There may even be some things that you feel God has led you to do, asked you to do, commanded you to do, and you're going, I don't think I can do this, God, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: There may be a crisis of faith happening in your life where you are questioning God, and that's understandable.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I wonder, I wonder if the challenges that you are facing today

[SPEAKER_00]: may be just like Abraham a test of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: But along with that, could it be that God has also prepared you for a miracle?

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham has gone through years of ups and downs, not fully trusting God trying to do things his own way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's reached a point where his faith is grown, where even this crazy, outlandish command from God, he says, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how God's gonna work it out, but I believe he's gonna work it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how it's gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he's gonna bring him back from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a possibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I believe God, I trust him to work this out.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if that's what God is looking for from you?

[SPEAKER_00]: What if God is looking for you in the middle of the darkest challenge in your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Say, I don't know how God, but I know you're gonna work it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know you work all things out for good to those who love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somehow, this is going to turn out for good, somehow in your plan, and I trust, I believe in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if that's what God is looking for you and that season of your life right now?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just something to think about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a test of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the first thing I want you to know about Genesis twenty two.

[SPEAKER_00]: The second thing is that it's a picture of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a picture of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout history and throughout the scriptures, God has given echoes of His salvation plan all over the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it with the bronze serpent that Moses lifts up just like Jesus has lifted up on across.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it with the three days that Jonah's in the whale before he is rescued.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it with the Passover Lamb.

[SPEAKER_00]: And perhaps the best example of this echo of grace, this picture of grace

[SPEAKER_00]: in history is this moment in Genesis, twenty-two, where Abraham offers his son Isaac up as a sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the best example of this that we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give you a few reasons why.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, one of the parallels is that we have a father who loves his only son.

[SPEAKER_00]: You saw that and the text over and over again, it said, his only son, his only son, his only son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did that strike anyone as odd and maybe wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was Isaac Abraham's only son?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he?

[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is no.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was not his only son, Ishmael was also a son of his.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why does the text say over and over, his only son, his only son, his only son, his only son is it just for emphasis?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well,

[SPEAKER_00]: The Hebrew word for only doesn't just mean only.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the challenge of translation.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are words in different languages that have multiple meanings.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the correct translation is only, but it doesn't just mean that it really means something more like unique, precious, beloved, one of a kind.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was special and loved by Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I can't imagine the torment.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Abraham was going through in his mind as he thought about having to do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he was faithful,

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he trusted God to still fulfill his promises through Isaac and bring him back to life and fulfill all the things he said he was do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was incredibly difficult for him and painful for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus, to die on the cross, it was painful too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a painful experience that he had to go through both of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is also referred to in the Bible as being God's one and only.

[SPEAKER_00]: Son, John three sixteenth says, for this is how God loved the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That phrase there means the same thing unique, special, one of a kind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where Isaac is a picture of this one of a kind, only son, that the Father loves deeply.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet is willing to sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Second parallel.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a place that is designated for sacrifice by God.

[SPEAKER_00]: The land is called Mariah.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where Abraham is told to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mountain where he goes up ends up being called Mount Mariah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's on the top of that mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Abraham prepares to sacrifice Isaac.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that mountain is what becomes the place where the temple is built and where sacrifices are carried out for many, many years there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the land of Mariah that region becomes a city called Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: a city where one day Jesus would be tried and crucified and would rise again from the dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's your second parallel, this is a place of sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Third parallel, you have a son who get this willingly participates in the sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: You say, how can that be?

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time I've heard this story shared, whenever I saw the visualists of this in Sunday School as a kid growing up,

[SPEAKER_00]: It was always a little boy eight to twelve years old that Abraham took up with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that is not how old Isaac was when this happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac was at the young end, maybe eighteen or nineteen more likely in his twenties or thirties when this happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's big and strong enough to carry a whole bunch of wood on his back up a mountain for one thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: For another thing, the word that is used to describe him as a boy does not mean a little boy like we think of.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have the right word for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: A more accurate translation might be something along the lines of young man.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a word that can refer to a boy as an teenager.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can also refer to a little boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can also refer to older men in their twenties or thirties.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the exact same word used in Genesis XIV to refer to the fighting men that went off to rescue lots.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the same word.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's used there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Josephus tells us that Isaac was twenty-five when this happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know if that's right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Josephus is not inspired history.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rabbinical tradition says that Isaac was thirty-seven when this happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's not a little boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's probably a young man, probably in his twenties or thirties.

[SPEAKER_00]: The reason for the Rabbinical tradition

[SPEAKER_00]: is because they believe the rabbis throughout history have believed that Sarah died upon learning the news that Isaac was almost sacrificed when they came back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so their belief is that she probably had a heart attack or something.

[SPEAKER_00]: And passed away, since we know the year of her death and we know when Isaac was born, you can do the math and figure out that he's thirty-seven years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't exactly know how old he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he was old enough that he could carry all that wood up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was old enough that he was probably a young man at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was old enough that he didn't have to go through with all this.

[SPEAKER_00]: That he could have run away the amount of trust that he had some commentators talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was not just a test of Abraham's faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a test of Isaac's faith as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse nine says, 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: And boy, do I wish I knew what was going on in Abraham's mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: The text doesn't really tell us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he weeping?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he crying?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he an anguish?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was he, did he have any doubts at all?

[SPEAKER_00]: What was going through his mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what I wish I knew even more?

[SPEAKER_00]: What was going on in Isaac's mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac, this young man strong enough to climb the mountain with all the wood on his back because his father just carries the torch in the knife.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gets up there and allows his father to bind him and lay him down on the altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he sees the knife raised above him.

[SPEAKER_00]: What was going through his mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: It must have been a test of faith for him too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham has told him that God will provide a lamb.

[SPEAKER_00]: But still, the horror that must be going through his mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Isaac carried the wood to the place of sacrifice, just like Jesus did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus carried his cross to the place of sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac was big and strong enough that he could have resisted, but he didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said he could call down ten thousand angels to rescue him, but he didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac could have gotten off the altar and run away, but he didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was mocked on the cross by people who said he could save others, but he can't save himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: They said, come down from there.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you come down from there, we'll believe in you and yet Jesus stayed on his altar to be a sacrifice for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That leads us to the fourth parallel between the story of Isaac and the story of Jesus, a substitute sacrifice, a substitute sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why does God make Abraham and Isaac go through this awful test?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he make him struggle through this wrestle through this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine the PTSD of this moment?

[SPEAKER_00]: Living on after this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, maybe it's overcome by the faith in God that developed because of it, but still.

[SPEAKER_00]: What an awful thing to have to go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also, here's a question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why does Moses write it down for us?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why was this not just a private test of faith Abraham had with Isaac?

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it accomplishes purposes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it recorded for millions and millions of people to read about after the fact?

[SPEAKER_00]: What are we supposed to learn from this?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in this day and age, human sacrifice was actually a somewhat normal thing to get the favor of the gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've talked here many times about how the Bible tells us these gods were not just imaginary.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were real spiritual figures, demonic forces behind these gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people didn't understand what it was, but these demonic forces had influence with the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: They could communicate in different ways and communicate what they wanted them to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they worked in their ways to try to do things

[SPEAKER_00]: that would upset God and subvert God's order and ruin people that were made in God's image.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so one of the things that they asked people to do was to commit human sacrifices horrible atrocious things we read earlier in Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

[SPEAKER_00]: How God said these were terrible things, the little gee gods were asking the people to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: They did that because it was in a front to the one true Creator God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we see, all throughout ancient history, human sacrifice being practiced as these different pagan people would carry out the wishes of their gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why would God command something similar?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would he walk them right up to the point of doing something just like what these other people were doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then say, hold up, we're not doing it that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing it to make a point.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the point is the substitute.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's doing it to show.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am different than all these other gods that you are around.

[SPEAKER_00]: All these other things that you see, these practices that you see, this is not who I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the way things are going to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac actually gets this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac deserves to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it, theological with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was Isaac a human who had flaws and mistakes and sinned in different ways and rebelled against God in his own ways?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the Bible says all of us do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so does Isaac have a right to keep his life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can the Creator take that life away?

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac did deserve to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he deserved to die and be separated from God forever because of his rebellion against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to Adam and Eve, all of us are in that boat.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all are born with a sin nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have sinful desires and we sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is just for God to kill us the one who gave us life to take our life away because we commit treason against him.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's the creator of all life.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not unjust for him to take that life away or to command other people to take that life away.

[SPEAKER_00]: At home, on my wall in our kitchen, is a lot of different works of art that my kids have made.

[SPEAKER_00]: They painted all sorts of really cool things.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've drawn stuff with different markers and crayons and things like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really incredible stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you were to go there, you could see the progression from year after year of all the neat things that they have made that we put up on display.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they like to, you know, every now and then they'll make something new and stick it up there and it's precious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes they'll ask me to make art with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll sit down and we have markers or crayons or something like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just did this a couple of weeks ago, while we were on our trip around Lake Michigan.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I sat down with markers and colored something as they were coloring things, and we made different pieces of art together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if I take a piece of art that I made, and I say, OK, I'm done with it now, I rip it up, and I throw it in the trash.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that okay for me to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I created it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have the right to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I created it, I can destroy it, that's okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I walk over to that wall in my home where there is a prized piece of art that one of my kids made years ago and they still love that thing and their name is on it and it's been hanging up there and we're all standing there in the kitchen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just walk over and firm them, pull it down and I rip it up and throw it in the trash.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that a good thing to me to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that a wise thing for me as a dad to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably not.

[SPEAKER_00]: My kids are over here right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would that be good for me to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably not.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not going to be happy day in the Bauer's house, because I didn't make it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have that kind of right to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one cares if I do it to my own stuff, but if I do it to somebody else's stuff, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has created incredible works of art.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we are.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he as the creator has the right to destroy it, especially the creation that has rebelled against him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has the right to destroy it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He can do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a big problem when someone else unjustly tries to destroy what God has created.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the false gods the demonic forces were trying to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Through their different religions and Deuteronomy talks about it, they were asking people to do things that were an actual act of aggression against God and his order and his creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his art, it was God's art that he had a right to.

[SPEAKER_00]: If God wants to take you out of this world, he can do it, has every right to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But other people cannot do that unless there's a just cause for an alliance with God's laws about, about retribution, those sorts of things, punishment, justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we can't just go kill other people for no reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is what the evil God's were asking their people to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here God has walked them right up to the point, walked Abraham and Isaac, right up to this point to say, look at this, this is what other nations do, this is what other God's expect of their people.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I have a better way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the point of Genesis twenty two.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has a better way.

[SPEAKER_00]: People will constantly chase after other gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout history, it's often been God's backed up by demons who engaged in all sorts of spiritual practices to worship those other gods instead of the one true God in some horrible, detestable ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not even going to go into all of the other ways that they did despicable acts to serve their gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, they were actually rebellion against the one true God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today, of course, our gods are different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their gods of convenience and pleasure and greed

[SPEAKER_00]: And ambition, the purpose is the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's idolatry against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's putting other things before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in this story, God is making a point.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other God's want these horrible things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I am not like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Other God's expect you to do evil things to subvert God's order, but God provides a substitute.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has the right to take our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: We deserve to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: We deserve it every bit as much to be on that altar like Isaac was, and yet God, at the last minute, provides a substitute.

[SPEAKER_00]: because he's merciful and he's gracious, and he wants us to enjoy being in a family with him for eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he provides a sacrifice as a substitute for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's important for us to realize that Isaac really did deserve to die, technically speaking, even though it seems so bizarre to us, but feel logically speaking, he and all of us deserve to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God says, nope, don't do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a better way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a substitute.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here is a lamb.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sacrifice this instead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what is he doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's giving us a picture of what's going to happen one day where Jesus is the lamb that's provided for us that gets up onto the altar for us willingly that stays up there when he could get down for us to pay for our sins of payment that we could never make a substitute sacrifice for us so that that payment gets applied to our account when we believe in him and trust in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then our sins are washed away.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't deserve it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God is making a point with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: My way is better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did that for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He got up on the cross for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He suffered a very painful and horrible public punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: The He didn't deserve so that He could pay for your sin and for my sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He says that if we believe in Him, if we trust in what He did for us and the fact that it was necessary, because we are sinners,

[SPEAKER_00]: and he will wash our sins away and we get to become a part of his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: There may be some people here today who have never really done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have never fully trusted in the payment of Jesus Christ on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have thought, well, yes, Jesus died from my sins and that's good, but there's other stuff that I need to do as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not how it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything we add to Jesus' payment means we're saying this payment wasn't enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: All God says we need to do is trust, believe in Jesus Christ as a payment for our sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, that requires also admitting that we're sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you believe in what Jesus Christ did for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the first step of faith that sets you on this journey of walking through life with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't mean you'll never sin again.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it does mean that now you have God walking with you, helping you to get better and better all the time until one day, when we become part of his eternal home,

[SPEAKER_00]: And we actually realize what it's like to be perfect and holy and righteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not because we earned it, but because he gives it to us freely, if we will accept that free gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna ask if you would have just bow your heads right now and just thank you and God, a private conversation right now for some people who are here, or maybe watching this online.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to realize that you have not fully, completely trusted in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's what you need to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to pray to God right now and say, God, I know that I am a sinful person.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am, I agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that that is treason against you, my Creator.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't wanna live that way anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know Jesus died for me to make me holy, to make me clean, to take away my sin and the penalty for my sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want that payment applied to my account, Jesus would you,

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you save me?

[SPEAKER_00]: God forgive me for my sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Help me to have new life and you make me a new person.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be part of your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do that, you become a child of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sends his Holy Spirit to live inside of you so you can live differently and grow in Him every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people want to wait until they have all the answers figured out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just take that first step of faith and see what God does in your life after that.

[SPEAKER_00]: For many of you, you've trusted in God for a long time, but there is a crisis that you are facing right now that is really causing you to question your faith in God and his promises and in his goodness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so maybe for you is a day to turn to him like Abraham did and say, God, I don't know how you're gonna work this out, but I believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how you're gonna work out a miracle out of this, but I can't wait to see it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God, I'm gonna fully trust and you even the middle of the storm, I'm going through right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, you have recorded these amazing stories for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're so packed of wisdom and truth, and beyond what we could even understand at first glance, but when we dig into it, we just find more and more that helps us to trust in you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Lord, we thank you for preserving these for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for the Bible, which is your love letter to us, to explain who you are and how you want us to live in light of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God, I pray that as we leave this place today, our faith would be strengthened and encouraged, that we would trust you even more than we did before, that whatever we face in life, whether it's a valley we're in right now, or maybe something in the future that we would view it as an opportunity to show faith in you, a test for us that develops perseverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: A way for us to grow faith in you more, and learn maybe a way to prepare us for a miracle.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, I pray that we're ready for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we're patient for it as we wait for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, that you would give us the people around us to encourage us through those difficult times to help us with that faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God, if there's anybody here that does not know you as their Savior Lord that you would just speak to them right now and their hearts show them how real you are that you want to be a part of their life.

[SPEAKER_00]: the offer this gift of salvation to them Lord, they just need to believe and trust in what you did for them on the cross, as our substitute, our sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you, Lord, and we praise you for all you've done for us, and Jesus name we pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.