Morning Message Text: Genesis 22: 1-14
Abraham Tested
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
Morning Message:
It seems like God brings the subject of worry up quite often in my sermons. In my preparation time I sometimes try to resist. I say to God, Lord you know I just preached on this subject, and I think to myself, maybe I should search for something else. That usually becomes an exercise in futility and I end up right back where I started and ready to submit to God’s will. I know better than to question God, but sometimes I am more interested in preaching variety than substance. That can be dangerous for a pastor because God knows what you need to hear, and it’s not always what I want to preach.
2 Peter 1: 3-4 says this: His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises. What is that saying to us about worry? Worry shows a lack of trust in God’s ability to provide for our lives. The cure to worry is to spend more time in God’s Word reading his promises. You see, if you read God’s promises and truly believe them, then you will realize that God has already said that He will take care of your worries. You can worry yourself to death.
I read this paragraph in my devotional this week and it got my attention. “Someone has said that it is hard to be mad at a person you are praying for! So the best way to deal with negative emotions about another person is to pray for them. Likewise, it is hard to worry when we consider God’s promises. So when we start to worry, the best thing to do is immerse our mind in scripture to be reminded of God’s promises to care for us.” Now I know that we are talking about worry, but that first sentence is very interesting to me, and I guess I never thought of things that way. The best way to deal with negative emotions about another person is to pray for them. This is so simple that it is hard to believe. This is what our country needs right now. I will be the first to confess that I have had, in the past, negative feelings about the leaders of our nation, and I know that we are called to pray for our leaders, but I don’t think most people do; not even Christians today. Instead, we allow our negative feelings to grow and fester until weather or not we want to admit it, hate starts to form in our hearts. Can you imagine how much better we would be as a nation if we prayed for those we disagree with. Not just for God to change them, but for God’s will to be done in their lives and ask God to bless them despite our feelings. As Christians, this should concern us, we should worry about this and then take it to God for our correction.
The apostle Peter wrote his two epistles to Christians who were scattered in churches across Asia Minor. 1 Peter dealt with persecutions from outside the churches; 2 Peter dealt with radical attacks from within the churches. In 2 Peter 3-4, Peter prescribes a defense for withstanding both situations: God’s great and precious promises that provide all things that pertain to life and godliness. The defense against all sources of worry or anxiety is God’s promises found in scripture. When worry rises, go to the Word and meditate on it until the promise of peace is met. I want you to think about a quote that I saw this week. The author of the quote is anonymous. “Worry is like a rocking chair; it will give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.”
Our scripture from Genesis shows us the opposite of worry. It shows us faith. The faith that is displayed by Abraham is a faith that is unimaginable to me. From our perspective, God’s command to Abraham is horribly cruel. One scholar has written that in this chapter; Abraham begins a journey into God-forsakenness. It begins with God calling Abraham’s name. God then uses words of increasing emotional significance to issue His instruction: “Take your son, your only son whom you love—Isaac.” Each phrase pierces closer to Abraham’s heart. Isaac was about 15, that would mean that Abraham was about 105 years old. In this defining moment, God asked Abraham to take all his future hopes—all that Abraham expected from the Lord according to His covenant—and surrender them on an altar. Although this instruction made no human sense, he did not argue or plead; he simply obeyed.
The Hebrew word used here for only son is yahid, an unusual term for something that is unique and irreplaceable. It is translated in the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible as monogenes, rendered sometimes as “the one and only.” This is the very word that is used of Jesus in the New Testament. Ishmael was a beloved and honored son of Abraham, but Isaac was yahid—the uniquely born son of Abraham and Sarah—and was so named monogenes. And Jesus, He is monogenes! He is the One whose conception is an even greater miracle than that of Isaac! Two sons: One of Abraham, one of God. Each was the one and only; each was priceless.
Abraham passed this test with flying colors. Why? Because he did not allow worry and fear to override the promises of God. Abraham believed God. He had complete faith in God’s Word when he told him that he would be a great nation and the father of many nations. He knew what we fail to remember when we allow worry and fear to overcome us. The God we serve can do all things. He is not confined to our human understanding. Abraham trusted that if God allowed him to carry through with His command that God could and would bring Isaac back to life. His faith in God’s promise was not bound by human knowledge and conceptions.
One last thing that I want you to see here. God led Abraham to a hill that in those days was known as Moriah to sacrifice his one and only, priceless son. The name was changed by the time Jesus was born, it was now known as Calvary, the place where God’s only, priceless son would be sacrificed for all of mankind. Abraham believed something about God that had never been seen before. He believed that God had the power to resurrect and give life back after death. We may never be called upon to display this much faith, but I hope and pray that we can release our worries and fears to our God and Savior.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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