Abraham, a picture of a Father, Genesis 22
Eric A. Snyder, Farwell Church of Christ,
June 16, 2002
Three boys were bragging about their fathers.
The first one said, "My father runs so fast he can fire an arrow, start running, and get there before the arrow!"
The second one said, "That’s nothing! My father can shoot a gun, start running, and get there before the bullet!"
The third boy just smiled. "That’s nothing. My father gets off work at 5 and is home before 4!"
When God created the family unit He did it perfectly. The bible says that when a husband and wife come together in marriage they fill in the gaps of the other partner. My small group just finished a personality assessment and spiritual gift analysis.
I have taken a lot of these but this is the first time I have been in a group with my wife. We found it very interesting that our personalities are very much the opposite of each other and our gifts are almost the exact opposite of each other.
But it does not stop there we have also noticed that we have different roles in our marriage. For example she nurtures our child and I watch TV. She does the housework and I make it all messy. She picks up the clothes and I throw them on the floor.
Now those last 3 lines were a joke but I don’t want anyone verifying facts with my wife.
That’s how those men bashing jokes get started.
Now maybe you had a hard time coming today because you knew the content of the message. For many here today the loss of a father is a hard reality to face. For some here today your father has passed on and for some your father chose to leave. Perhaps the memories on a day like today are hard to deal with. Still some others have father’s at home today who are good providers but offer nothing to the household spiritually.
Today we are looking at the life of a very famous father in Genesis 22. I don’t know what you know about Abraham but I think he was a pretty typical father. I remember when I was growing up how weird I thought my dad was. Today I still think my dad is weird but I don’t notice it as much because I am getting a little weird too.
He could mix anything together and make a meal out of it. He was always singing his made up songs around the house and believe me. You never wanted to meet him at the kitchen in the middle of the night
But I am not the only one who has these stories to tell. Everyone has a few things about their dad that they find a little odd.
In Genesis 22 we find Abraham being a father and although his oddness shines through these passages we also see a man who trusts in God and is committed to obey Him.
I wish that this story was new to all of you. Because sometimes we hear a story and don’t get the whole meaning even after we read it a hundred times . If it were possible I would like you to listen with fresh ears like you were hearing it for the first time.
Let’s read
22:1 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, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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."
Pray
Every time I read this story I can’t believe what I’m reading. God made a promise to Abraham that his children were going to populate the earth and then at the age of 100 he finally received a son through his barren wife.
So in this text God says sacrifice your son. A very odd request. Those that have heard this story or read it many times may have even become numb to its whole effect. If you are new to the faith you most likely find this text disturbing.
I have been a follower of Jesus for more than 15 years and I sometimes find this text disturbing. God this is why people don’t understand you, its stories like this.
The key to this text that is supposed to make us all feel better is in verse 1, which preempts us that God is just testing Abraham.
I wish that God would have found some other way to test Abraham. But he didn’t and because he asked Abraham to put his son on the altar we see some distinguishing traits of an earthly father but we also see some traits of our heavenly father.
Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ’71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.
Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory."
We find all those things to be true when we grasp the first life lesson about God
God expects his children to obey Him
We don’t get to look into the mind of Abraham through this text but we can obviously see that through the spiritual journey of his life he had finally learned to trust God completely.
I wonder what that walk up the mountain was like. Son you carry the firewood. Now this wasn’t like asking him for the remote he was trying to make the boy’s arms tired so he could tie him up later.
Let’s think sensibly a teenager and a 100 year old man. You’ve got to wear down the resistance.
But that walk of faith was a lot like Abraham’s long journey of faith. It was uphill all the way. And some of you today are on long journeys of faith. You have begun asking questions about God. Others are in the middle of their walk where you trust God but only when it makes sense or when the price is not too high. And there are some in this room that if ordered to sacrifice their children would gladly do it.
This text is an extreme one and the truth is God won’t ask you to sacrifice your children but one point of the text is clear.
Let nothing stand in the way of your relationship with God.
Jesus said it another way in Matthew 18 He is talking about sin. Or things that keep you from obeying God.
7 "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Jesus says whatever it is, get rid of it if it stands in the way of you going to heaven.
If it’s a hobby that keeps you from God’s presence, get rid of it
If it’s a disobedient act, get rid of it
If it’s an inappropriate relationship, Get rid of it
Now God is very clear that He wants families to love one another but the also says Your earthly family is not a substitute or for the eternal family God wants you to be a part of.
Jesus made it clear that Family was not to get in the way of a life spent in God’s presence
In Luke 9:59 and 60 Jesus tells a man to come follow him and the man replies first let me go bury my father. And Jesus’ words to him are let the dead bury their own You go proclaim the truth to people.
God expects total obedience at whatever cost is necessary for people to get serious about their relationship with Him.
I recently read an article about a group of people who go downhill slalom skiing the thing that makes this group of people different than any other group that can ski is that this group is blind. They ski wit a partner who can see and the partner screams right or left depending on the course.
If these people chose not to listen to the guide then they obviously get into a world of hurt.
It’s the same way with God we have plans and have been talking a lot about finding God’s plan for our lives but like Abraham we cannot see all that God has in story when we are right in the midst of it.
We must learn to listen and adhere to the voice of God
God expects his children to depend on Him
This goes hand in hand with obedience
Fathers take great joy in providing, a character trait instilled by God who loves to take care of his children.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:9-11 9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Hudson Taylor, pretty famous missionary said
“Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning... He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all... Depend on it, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
Abraham believed that. Do you?
Do you believe that if you are faithful to God that he will provide for you?
That’s a basic promise of God that when we are obedient to Him he will provide. He will provide personally. He will provide for us as a church. He will provide on any level that we are willing to trust him. The Bible says that if we as a nation would pray and become obedient then he would provide for us.
The key to this text should be the key to your life.
Abraham valued God more than anything.
Abraham had a lot of wealth but he thought God was worth more than his wealth. In the next chapter his wife dies and he insists on paying full price for a burial place.
Abraham was a model of integrity at this point in his life. He valued honesty over his fortune and he was committed to doing the right thing.
Abraham was a man who had a lot of friends but he valued God more than those friends.
Abraham was a man who loved his family but in this text we see how serious he was about God.
Abraham was not always the model of a Godly person. You don’t have to read back too many chapters to find him lying about his wife, or having a son from a woman who was not his wife.
His life was a spiritual journey. And eventually he learned the lesson that God was trying to teach him.
It is the same message that God wants you to get from this text today.
There is no price too high to ensure a right relationship with God
Ellen
God told Abraham to lay his only legitimate child and sacrifice him.
Perhaps foretelling of how God would take his own son and place him up on another altar.
That day God provided an animal for a sacrifice but when Jesus died God provided a way for all to become his children. No sacrifice was too great for God to get to know you. No price was too high for him to ensure a relationship with you.
But now it’s time for you to climb the mountain this morning and place your sacrifice on the altar. If there is something standing in the way of God. Get rid of it. And trust God to provide.
