2/18 Sermon - In your tests, trust the one who provides
In your tests, trust the one who provides
Genesis 22:1-18
When Abraham was 75 years old, he had given up hope: he had no children. Who has ever heard of a 75-year-old man and 65-year-old woman having children? But then the unthinkable happened: God promised them a son. And they waited. And waited. And waited. For 25 years. Finally, when Abraham was 100, Sarah was 90, God blessed them with Isaac, their only son.
Then God tested Abraham. “Abraham, Abraham,” God called. “Here I am,” Abraham said. “Take Isaac, your only son, the son you’ve waited for 25 years, the son born in your 100 year, your beloved, cherished son, and sacrifice him, and burn his body completely on Mount Moriah.
What storm of emotions must have raged in Abraham’s head! Doubt. Anger. Grief. “How could God say something like this? How could he do this? I must sacrifice, kill, and burn up my only Son?”
But we’re told Abraham followed God’s Word. This story gives us all these little details: Abraham got up early, took two servants, saddled his donkey, split wood himself with an ax for the fire. On the third day, he saw the mountain rising up, the mountain he would sacrifice and burn his own son. He loaded up fire and wood, and hiked up with Isaac. On the way, Isaac asked his dad, “Father, we have the fire, we have the wood, where is the lamb for the burnt offering.” “Don’t worry, son, the LORD will provide.” They get to the top. Abraham builds the altar, ties his son with rope, lays him on the altar, and lifts the knife, and prepares himself to plunge the point into Isaac’s neck.
What storm of emotions must have raged in Abraham’s head! The writing here intentionally slows down and gives us little details. What was Abraham thinking when he saw Mount Moriah for the first time? As he hiked up with Isaac? As he built the altar? How much doubt and pain overwhelmed his heart?
Just as he was going to plunge the knife down, the angel of the LORD, the Son of God himself, called out, “Abraham!” Trembling, the knife held high, Abraham says, “Here I am.” “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Now I know that you fear God, because you have no withheld your only Son from me.” Abraham lifted his eyes and saw a ram, caught in a bush. And he sacrificed the ram instead. So Abraham named that mountain, “The LORD will provide.” That was the one who tested Abraham.
How was Abraham able to get through this test? It was terrible, right? There is only one answer: He knew that God provides. In Abraham’s test, he trusted the one who provides. Three big details tell us that.
- What did God name Abraham? How did he call out to him? “Abraham! Abraham!” That means the father of many nations. Abrahma’s descendants would become many nations. And God said, explicitly, that promise would come through Isaac. That was how God called to Abraham! “Father of many nations, who will come through Isaac. Go and sacrifice Isaac.” Abraham’s own name told him God would provide him descendants through Isaac.
- How did Abraham talk? What did he say to his servant? “We will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham trusted that his son would not die on that mountain. Even if Isaac did die, God would raise Isaac from the dead. Hebrews 11 talks this way, “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Abraham trusted that God would provide Isaac, would give Isaac back, even from the dead.
- What promise did God speak to Abraham at the end of this reading? “Because you trusted in me, I will bless you, make your descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and through your offspring, all nations will be blessed.” But this was actually the “third” time God spoke this to Abraham. This was God’s promise to Abraham. He would provide a son, descendants, and salvation for all people. Abraham trusted in God’s promise to provide.
Why did God do this? Why did God test Abraham? An illustration helps, I think. When you refine gold, the process is simple. You just get the gold really, really hot, over 2000 degrees. The refining, the testing, takes the impurities away, makes the gold more precious. This is what God did with Abraham. This test took away Abraham’s self-reliance, his doubts, his love of this world. His faith became more pure gold, a faith that trusted entirely in the one who provides.
Today, God invites us to rethink our own trials and tests. We think trials and tests are a bad thing, but trials and tests are actually a good thing for us, and part of God’s plan.
Before we dive into this, you need to understand: our trials are a little different than Abraham. God hasn’t promised to bring the Savior from your children. God will not speak to you in a dream. God won’t test you by asking you to sacrifice your children.
But God will test you. Sometimes in a horrible way. God might take away a spouse or a child. God mighty let you lose your job. God cause you to have a stroke or cancer. God might give you lingering, lifelong health problems. God might make you so busy time with him becomes a big sacrifice. How is God testing you, right now? What suffering and pain is in your life, right now?
In your tests, trust in the one who provides eternal blessing.
That’s what Abraham called that mountain, right? In this place, it will be provided. Do you know what’s special about that mountain? On that very same mountain, Solomon built the temple and countless sacrifices were offered. On that very same mountain, Jesus shed his blood to take away our sin and gave up his life to give us life. God provided salvation.
What did God say to Abraham? Through your offspring, that is, Jesus, all nations will be blessed. Through Jesus, you have blessing. God has provided to you the hope of eternal life.
Abraham was absolutely confident God cold even raise Isaac from the dead, if he were killed. God provides that same promise to you! No matter how terrible our trial is, even if it brings us to death, or brings a loved one to death, God provides for us the resurrection from the dead and eternal life.
In your tests, trust in the one who provides not only eternal blessings, but earthly blessings as well. There are good reasons for the tests God gives.
That same picture from before applies. You refine gold by fire, by heat. Sometimes God uses heat to refine us, he uses tests and trial to refine our faith. Let’s rethink our attitude about that. The pain who go through is horrible. IN heaven we won’t have problems like that. But God does use those trials for our good in three big way.
1) God strengthens our faith. When we go through tests, we realize how weak we are, how self-reliant we can be, and how selfish we are. And all those impurities get burned away and removed. What’s left over is gold, a simple child-life faith in God’s promises and God’s love.
2) God focuses our faith. When we go through tests, we see how distracted we are. Our children, our family, our jobs, our health, our money, our house, are all great, but we can start to worship those things, as if they were the source of our life and happiness. But when trials hit, our impurities get burned away, and we realize this broken world is not our home. Our home is eternal life in heaven.
3) God uses our trials for our good. Sometimes, or usually, that doesn’t seem true, right? We think, “What good could God possibly make from this? How could God send this into my life? Why have you done this, God?” It may be that God is even allowing Satan to work against us. But we know that no matter what happens, no matter how horrible it might be, God uses our trials and tests for our good, to strength and focus us, to help others.
Sometimes, we don’t even know when a trial is happening. We’re told that this was a trial, but Abraham didn’t know! When God tested Job, he never told Job about Satan’s challenge to him. In some cases, we do now: yeah, I’m probably being tested right now. In other cases, we forget, right? God tests us, quite often, even in small ways, to strength and focus our faith.
God uses every opportunity to test us. In some cases, it’s out of our control: a car accident, a stroke, a lost job. In other cases, in can be our fault: we make mistakes ,we mess up, we sin. It doesn’t matter, in every case, no matter what God uses all those problems to test us.
The point is obvious, right? We have lots of tests, but God uses them for our good. We have lots of tests, and God provides hope for us, the hope of life through Jesus Christ.
What went on in Abraham’s heart when he journeyed to sacrifice his son? We’re not told, right? But he followed God’s command. What goes on in our hearts in the midst of our tests? What pain, suffering, doubt? Of course! We’re human. But in our pain, in our doubt, in our suffering, like Abraham, in our tests, trust in the one who provides.
