WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.120 So we continue our series on the great stories of the Bible this morning and 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:11.419 really the idea for the series comes from the logic of Deuteronomy chapter 6 00:00:11.419 --> 00:00:18.019 where God tells the Israelites to teach your kids the commandments and tell your 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:23.199 kids the great stories of the mighty works of God. And so we do that we have 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:27.679 storybook Bibles that we used to do that. The Israelites did that at nighttime 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:33.439 around the campfires. We do that in the modern world at bedtime. And this series 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:38.960 is really an adults look at the stories that have made it into the storybook 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:51.159 Bibles. But Genesis 22 it's not actually one of them because few have been so bold 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:56.200 as to translate this story to a children's storybook Bible. Sally Lloyd 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:01.400 Jones did do it in Jesus storybook Bible so that's commendable. Because it's 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:06.439 difficult for kids to come to terms with what's happening in this passage and 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:15.600 it's even harder for adults. Because what looks like is on the line here is that 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:21.560 God seems to be commanding something that is contrary to his law. The death of a 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:27.079 child, a child's sacrifice, something that only is done in pagan worship in the 00:01:27.079 --> 00:01:35.840 ancient Near East. But this is truly a great story. And some Old Testament 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:40.400 scholars say it's the greatest story of the Old Testament. Gordon Winnum one 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:45.240 commentator he says this, no other story in the Old Testament can match the 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:53.119 sacrifice of Isaac for its haunting beauty and its theological depth. And so 00:01:53.119 --> 00:01:59.959 that means that it's hard in 30 minutes for me to unpack the importance of this 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:04.039 text really and how important it's been for the church throughout history, for 00:02:04.039 --> 00:02:08.000 theologians throughout history, and even for philosophers both religious and 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:14.759 non-religious. Emmanuel Kant maybe the most famous philosopher in a thousand 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:18.599 years. This was one of the texts that drove him away from traditional 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:25.199 Christianity. He said that Genesis 22 to could not be spoken by God. And on the 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:28.919 flip side, Sorin Kikrgar, who some of you have heard of the Danish philosopher in 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:34.000 the 1900s, he wrote an entire book about this passage responding to Emmanuel 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.719 Kant called Fear and Trimbling, a very famous book. And so it's been immensely 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:45.080 important this passage through all of history. And thankfully for us the New 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:50.560 Testament interprets the Old Testament on this passage. We don't have to guess 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:55.159 what's going on here. Hebrews 11, the passage that we read earlier, our New 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:59.759 Testament reading tells us exactly how we are supposed to understand Genesis 22. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:06.120 And it says really two things. In verse 17 of that passage it says by faith 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:13.800 Abraham was tested and he offered up Isaac by faith. He passed the test by 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:19.080 faith. So the first thing is that this is a test and God is intending that we see 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:24.360 this test of Abraham and we see his faith. We see the power of his faith in 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:29.319 this test. And then secondly in verse 19 it says that Abraham considered that God 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:35.040 is able to raise people even from the dead from which he also received Isaac 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:40.759 back as a type. In other words the second thing that that we're supposed to see is 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:46.000 that Isaac was intended as a type or a symbol for something greater than himself 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:51.959 in Genesis 22. And so those are the two main ideas, the test and the type. And in 00:03:51.959 --> 00:03:55.719 order to see it I want to just want to ask three questions this morning for a 00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:02.000 few minutes with you. What is the test? What's the... sorry what is a test in 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.080 general? What's the nature of this test of Abraham's test? And then how do you 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:14.000 pass it? How do you pass the test? Okay so first what's a test? Genesis 22 verse 1 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:21.079 says God tested Abraham and it's important from the outset to know that 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:31.720 the Bible teaches the fact of the test. The fact that God tests his people. So 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:36.400 what does that mean? Well what's a test? What is a test? What is a test in 00:04:36.400 --> 00:04:41.280 general? I mean every one of us knows what a test is. We've all been tested. 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:46.640 Tests when they are at their best, they're meant to do two things. 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:54.440 They're meant to reveal what you are and what you aren't. Right so if you want to 00:04:54.440 --> 00:04:58.320 learn a foreign language for instance and become fluent let's say French you 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:02.120 will go take a course in French to become fluent in French but the first thing 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.920 that they're gonna do when you come to study French is they're gonna give you 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:09.480 a placement test. And that placement test is meant to do two things. It's meant 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:15.360 to tell you where you are or who you are, what you know. It's meant to show you 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:19.800 what you know and then secondly it's meant to show you what you don't know, what 00:05:19.800 --> 00:05:25.399 you aren't, what you don't have in order that you would grow. You see it's a test 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:31.120 when they're at their very best they're meant to grow you. To test you and 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:37.679 what you don't have so that you can know how to grow. But there are also tests 00:05:37.679 --> 00:05:42.239 that come at their very worst and we have all had test givers in our lives 00:05:42.239 --> 00:05:46.919 that don't give tests like that. They give test in order to destroy you, in 00:05:46.919 --> 00:05:51.560 order to kill you, in order to make you bleed, in order to show you that you're 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.879 terrible. There are test givers that give tests like that. I remember when 00:05:56.879 --> 00:06:01.199 I was living in Jackson, Mississippi before moving here that all the people 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:04.759 who would start medical school at the University Medical Center there in 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:08.000 Mississippi they would say that they would go in to the class first week and 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.759 all the professors would say the same thing and they would say the only reason 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:16.680 that this semester exists, this first semester, is for us to get rid of half of 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:21.240 you. Half of you aren't gonna be sitting in these chairs about come December. 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:26.160 Right? And the point was that their test that was gonna be so terrible that they 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.400 were gonna kill you, that they were gonna get rid of you, that they were gonna 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:33.000 strain, strain the people that couldn't cut it. And so tests at their best are 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:38.319 meant to grow you. And tests at their worst are meant to kill you, destroy you. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:46.840 And that's exactly the two types of tests that are present in the Bible and in 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:56.079 the Christian life. God does the first, tests that grow you, and Satan does the 00:06:56.079 --> 00:07:02.439 second, tests that are meant to destroy you. It's important to know that the very 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:08.759 same word that is most often translated test in the Bible is also the same word 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:19.159 for temptation. And God, you could say in Genesis 22, tempts Abraham. And the 00:07:19.159 --> 00:07:23.159 problem with that, that might come to your mind, is that in James 1, chapter, 00:07:23.159 --> 00:07:28.719 James chapter 1 verse 14, it says don't ever say that God tempts or tests 00:07:28.719 --> 00:07:35.360 anybody. But Genesis 22 here clearly says that God does tempt, that God does test 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.759 and that's supported throughout the whole Bible. And the point is made in 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:44.920 Genesis 1, James 1, 14 and 15, exactly the distinction between these two types of 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:50.480 tests. It says never say that God tempts, God tests in order to entice you to 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:57.240 sin. You see, in other words, God doesn't test anybody in order to destroy them, 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:02.600 he tests them in order to grow them. And Satan does the exact opposite. He tempts, 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:08.240 he tests in order to kill, in order to destroy. And the most famous example of 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:17.840 that is Job, the life of Job, Job chapter 1. Job, in the same context, in the same 00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:23.439 moment, is being tested in both ways. Satan comes to Job in order to kill him, in 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:27.400 order to destroy him, to test him so that he'll curse God and die. And God comes to 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:32.679 him in the exact same circumstance, in order that he might prove Job blameless, 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:37.959 that he might grow him, that he might show him how to get more virtue, to 00:08:37.959 --> 00:08:41.879 become holier. And in the very same context, you can be tested by your 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:50.720 evil desires, by Satan to be destroyed to sin and by God to grow. And so in 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:58.120 Genesis 22, God tests Abraham, he tempts him. And we know that because the Bible 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:02.040 tells us that Abraham knew that because God told him that. But the question is, 00:09:02.040 --> 00:09:07.680 how do you know, how do I know when we're being tested, when we're coming under 00:09:07.680 --> 00:09:13.360 the test, under the temptation of God? How do you know? And I think the only 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.680 answer we can give is that you don't, absolutely. But there is a measure, and 00:09:20.680 --> 00:09:25.440 that measure is something like this, when you are under the test, you're not 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:34.840 under the test until it's so much easier in some circumstance to disobey than to 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:43.039 obey. When you know what's right, but you want so much more of what's wrong, 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.039 and when that circumstance comes, you're under the test, you're under the knife, 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:53.079 you're under temptation. Let me give you some examples of what I mean. You're 00:09:53.079 --> 00:10:01.279 under the test when honesty in the workplace means major financial and job 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:06.759 security consequences. You're under the test when speaking the truth in love 00:10:06.759 --> 00:10:13.759 may mean losing a relationship. You're under the test when believing in the 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:19.600 Bible makes you look like a fool in the public square. You're under the 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:23.559 test when obeying makes you deny your innermost desires and suppress your 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:28.399 feelings because you know what's right. That's when you're under the test. In 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:35.000 other words, the test of God means obedience is going to cost you something. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:42.919 It's some figurative metaphorical temporary death to a perceived blessing. 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:54.639 Some of us avoid all contexts that we think might bring the context in 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:58.519 which we might have to obey to the point of great cost. We avoided it all cost. 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:07.079 This is why God tests. He tests that we will be unshaken on the inside no 00:11:07.079 --> 00:11:11.559 matter what the circumstance is on the outside. He tests you so that you might 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:17.079 be strong, that you might grow, that you might become great. That's why in the 00:11:17.079 --> 00:11:23.840 Bible the idea of the test, the test of God, Hebrews 12 calls it the trial of 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:30.160 discipline is often metaphorically presented as the process of smelting. 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:34.080 Smelting, it's when you put metal, I don't know that much about it, but it's 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:38.680 when you put metals into fire and burn away the dross and the impurities and 00:11:38.680 --> 00:11:41.560 purify the metals, right? You see it all over the Bible. You've heard it a 00:11:41.560 --> 00:11:45.680 million times if you go to church from preachers, but the thing is is that for 00:11:45.680 --> 00:11:49.800 an ancient person that metaphor was alive. I mean they would see the black 00:11:49.799 --> 00:11:54.399 Smith in the marketplace smelting all the time. We never see it unless you are 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:59.839 the 1% that works at a factory or something that does this. But the test, 00:11:59.839 --> 00:12:03.159 it's going into the fire, it's burning away the impurity, it's for your growth, 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:11.159 it's for your good. When I think about my children, especially my oldest son 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:19.039 Ethan, and think about what I want him to become, I know that at least I want him 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:23.360 to become a man of godly character, right? And if you have a son, you probably 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:29.919 want him to become a man of godly character. And right now, Ethan suffers 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:35.919 a little bit in life, but on the whole life it's pretty easy for him. 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:42.959 Suffering at our house is when the ice cream runs out. That's a big deal for us, 00:12:42.959 --> 00:12:48.480 for him. I mean that's the main trial he's working through right now. But look, 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.480 what I know is this, if he's ever going to become a man of godly character, 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:57.159 he's going to have to go through the fire. He's going to have to be tested. 00:12:57.159 --> 00:13:04.360 Obedience is going to cost him. Because human beings grow through trials. 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:08.440 Human beings grow through trials and God often grows his people through trials 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:13.279 and tests. And that's the truth of Scripture. Okay, so that's a test in 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.039 general. Secondly, what about this test specifically? What about the nature of 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:28.639 this test? This is the test of all tests. And you will never be tested like this. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:35.199 This is unique. This is a once in a life, once in history moment. And in Abraham's 00:13:35.199 --> 00:13:39.000 test, the first thing that Hebrews 11 wants us to see is that his faith was 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:46.039 astounding. That it's an example. And as Protestants, we often don't think enough 00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:50.639 maybe about the characters of the Bible and their faith. But Hebrews 11, 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:54.039 that's exactly what it's trying to get us to see. This is what John Calvin, 00:13:54.039 --> 00:14:00.000 the Protestant reformer, says about Abraham. We ought to esteem Abraham as a 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:05.719 man equal to a hundred thousand if we consider his faith, which is set before 00:14:05.719 --> 00:14:12.120 us in the Bible as the best model of believing. Why is Abraham's faith so 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:16.440 significant in this passage? And in order to understand why it says 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:20.720 significant, you have to look at the little phrase in verse 1 before it says 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:26.960 God tested Abraham. It says, after these things, after these things, God tested 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:31.919 Abraham. And that's a marker to tell you that what has happened in Abraham's life 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:36.440 already is incredibly important for understanding what's happening in Genesis 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:43.760 22. This is the man who was called out of Babylon to be the people of God, to be 00:14:43.760 --> 00:14:48.200 a blessing to the nations, to be the father of God's people. And every single 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:52.080 thing that God said to him in Genesis chapter 12 was all about the blessing. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:55.440 You're going to be blessed in so many different ways. And that was going to 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:01.120 come through a son. Now, Calvin, when he's looking at this passage, he chronicles 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:07.080 Abraham's life and asks this question, is this the man of blessing? Is this the 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:11.519 man of blessing that God had promised? And just listen to this. Genesis 12, he's 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:17.720 called by God, taken away from his father, from his home, from his family and 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:22.480 friends, from his land, from his security. And Calvin says, it's as if God 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:28.360 deliberately intended to strip him of all the delights of life. Then when he gets 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:35.279 to the land that was promised, it's in famine and his family is starving. And so 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:40.440 he leaves the land and he goes south to a place where he feels that he is forced 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:46.879 to prostitute his wife for the sake of his safety. And Calvin says, this is an act 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:53.320 probably more bitter than the many deaths. Then when he gets back to the land, 00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:57.639 he's driven out of the land again because of a famine, because once again 00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:02.559 there's no water, there's no food. And again, he goes to a bimilex land and he 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:10.080 feels like he's forced to prostitute his wife for their safety. And in all of this, 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:15.879 he has no children and his wife is barren. And the whole point of the promise was 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:19.799 that he would have a child who would be the beginning of the nations. And there's 00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:26.960 no kids. And when he does finally get a kid, a child, a son, through Hagar, 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:36.200 his wife's servant, his name is Ishmael, the boy, Sarah hates Ishmael so much that 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:43.759 she commands Abraham to dismiss his son and send him into the desert with 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:50.759 bread and water forever. This is his son. And it might not be his wife's son, but 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:57.000 it was his son. And in the grand understatement of the Old Testament in 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:06.319 Genesis 21, it says, this much displeased Abraham. It crushed him. And in the very 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:15.079 next paragraph, we get Genesis 22. And now he has another son, Isaac. And this is 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:18.599 the son of hope. This is the son of the blessing. This is the son of the promise. 00:17:18.599 --> 00:17:23.319 This will be the father of the nations. And as soon as he gets him as a boy, God 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:29.719 says, now you go take him to the hill and you slaughter him. And for all of us who 00:17:29.719 --> 00:17:35.639 have children, and for all of you who are members here and have vowed to have 00:17:35.639 --> 00:17:39.199 covenant children in this congregation, just listen to what Calvin says about 00:17:39.199 --> 00:17:45.480 this. What more frightful thing can the human mind imagine than for a father to 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:54.279 become the executioner of his own son? If Isaac had died of sickness, who among us 00:17:54.279 --> 00:18:00.720 would not say Abraham, the most miserable man of the world? As if God had given him 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:08.480 a son for a short time as a joke. And if he, if Isaac had been killed by some 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:14.160 stranger or some criminal, who among us would not say this tragedy is even worse 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:20.759 than if Isaac had died by sickness. But for a son to be slaughtered by his own 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:28.360 father, by his own father's hand, this surpasses every sort of tragedy imaginable 00:18:28.360 --> 00:18:35.120 to the human mind. And so he sums up Abraham's life like this. Abraham was so 00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:39.480 tossed in trouble that if anyone wished to paint a picture of a tragic life that 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:43.080 was supposed to be a blessing, he could find no model more appropriate than 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:50.799 Abraham. And the shock of the command here to take Isaac to the mount is even 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:57.039 more apparent in the Hebrew text that sits behind this English. Because in 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:02.439 Hebrew there is a verb that's used in this passage only one other time in the 00:19:02.439 --> 00:19:07.279 whole Bible. A very peculiar verb appears nowhere else. It's as if it was just 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:12.960 made up and it's translated here go. Go to Mount Mariah and take your son 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.440 and offer him his sacrifice. But it's more literally translated it's more 00:19:16.440 --> 00:19:22.600 Shakespearean. It's like go and go thyself up from here would be something the 00:19:22.600 --> 00:19:25.840 way you could translate it. And it only appears in one other place in the whole 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:30.480 Bible and that's in Genesis 12 verse 1 when the first word that Abraham ever 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:36.720 hears from God is go thyself up from here to the land of blessing. I will give 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:43.640 you a son. And the next time that verb is used in Genesis 22 go thyself up from 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:48.480 here and take the son of blessing that I promised in Genesis 12 and kill him. And 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:54.079 one commentator puts it this way in Genesis 12 in the most unique verb in 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:59.039 the book of Genesis Abraham is asked to relinquish the past in the hope of a 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:05.160 blessing. In Genesis 22 Abraham by the very same word is asked to relinquish 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:12.360 all hope in any happiness. Why is this the ultimate test in the Old Testament? 00:20:12.360 --> 00:20:16.519 Because the command of God in this passage seems to contradict the promise 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:24.680 of God. How could God ask this? And the point behind it the point of every test 00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:28.080 the point of this test the point of Abraham's test and your test and my test 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:38.159 is this God is asking Abraham am I your ultimate treasure? Am I your ultimate 00:20:38.159 --> 00:20:46.799 hope? What's being asked of Abraham is can you lose your precious only the apple 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:53.199 of your eye the flower of your heart in the days of his youth and still hope in 00:20:53.200 --> 00:21:02.559 God? And the answer for Abraham was yes and that's why his faith is commendable. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:08.880 In verse 10 he builds the altar and he takes his son up the mountain and he 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:19.559 prepares to do the deed. The question is can you lose what is most precious in 00:21:19.559 --> 00:21:26.440 your life? Your ring to put it in Tolkien's terms and still hope in God. 00:21:26.599 --> 00:21:33.079 Let me be make a more direct relationship a more direct application. How 00:21:33.079 --> 00:21:42.799 could some of us survive the death of a child and still hope in God? How could we 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:49.440 see them leave before us and have hope? How? And so that brings us to the final 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:57.240 point how do you survive the test? How do you hope in God at the expense of the 00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:03.279 most precious thing in life? And there are two answers to that in the passage 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:09.600 briefly. The first answer is to think and just very briefly in Hebrews chapter 11 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:19.359 it says that Abraham reasoned that he reasoned. In verse 19 he reasoned in the 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:24.399 face of losing his son that God could raise his son Isaac from the dead. It was 00:22:24.399 --> 00:22:31.119 no blind faith. He didn't just take a leap. Hebrews 11 said he thought he 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:36.639 processed through logic and probably what he did was he thought about this. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:42.280 Abraham knew God already to be the giver of life. Not a God who takes life away 00:22:42.280 --> 00:22:47.560 but gives life. The Creator, the one who opens old women's wombs who shouldn't 00:22:47.560 --> 00:22:51.920 have children to give children. The one who called him out of a land that 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:58.240 practiced child sacrifice and said get away from there. And he reasoned that 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:03.120 that this God could raise his son from the dead and that's what gave him hope. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:08.359 And it says in Hebrews 11 that he didn't say that God would raise Isaac from the 00:23:08.359 --> 00:23:14.719 dead but Abraham thought he could. He didn't know. He stepped forward in the 00:23:14.719 --> 00:23:18.319 faith and the logic of the doctrine of God that this God is the life-giving God. 00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:24.439 He could raise Isaac from the dead. And so the first thing is he he it was a not a 00:23:24.439 --> 00:23:29.639 blind faith but secondly and more importantly and finally how did Abraham 00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:35.759 survive? And the answer in this passage is that he looked for the Lamb. He looked 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:44.680 for the Lamb. Now in verse 8 Isaac is no dummy. He's old enough to understand 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.920 what's happening and he's old enough to carry the wood on his back up the mountain 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:54.520 at least. And the King James is even better than this because it's he says 00:23:54.519 --> 00:24:06.440 this Father. Behold Father the altar. Behold the wood. But Father behold where 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:14.759 is the Lamb? And Abraham says God will provide for himself the Lamb. He hoped 00:24:14.759 --> 00:24:21.440 and at the point of death as Abraham binds his own son to the altar 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:26.160 bearing the knife putting it to his throat hoping beyond hope that there 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:30.720 might be a Lamb that there might be a Lamb called in the thicket. God comes 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:34.600 down in the form of the angel of the Lord and says do not lay a hand on the boy. 00:24:34.600 --> 00:24:39.880 The Hebrew text is in fact it is literally don't touch the boy for the Lord 00:24:39.880 --> 00:24:49.279 sees. And the substitute was in the thicket waiting there. Now to understand 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:54.160 very briefly what's happening here you have to see just just quickly three 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:01.319 details in the text to make sense of it. And the first is this what is happening 00:25:01.319 --> 00:25:05.639 here? What has specifically been commanded? And what has specifically been 00:25:05.639 --> 00:25:12.240 commanded is that Abraham give Isaac as a burnt offering not simply murder him 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:18.879 not simply kill him but this is a burnt offering and that's very specific. What 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:23.280 that means is a burnt offering is a ceremonial sacrifice that has a 00:25:23.280 --> 00:25:27.640 specific intention and we know what that intention is from Leviticus chapter 1. 00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:31.720 Leviticus chapter 1 tells us exactly what a burnt offering is for. A burnt 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:37.000 offering in the Old Testament is for the purification of the pollution that sin 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:44.280 has caused. And Leviticus 1 even calls it an atonement for sin. In other words 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:50.759 what's been commanded here is that Isaac's death is meant to be an atonement 00:25:50.759 --> 00:25:59.680 for the sin of the people. He's being offered up here to God as an atonement 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:04.319 for the pollution of sin. And so that that's the first thing for forgiveness. 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:10.359 The second thing you have to know is where? Where did this take place? And he 00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:16.839 told God tells Abraham take your son to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. Now 00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:22.919 Mount Moriah, it doesn't say Mount Moriah. Moriah is a hill country in 00:26:22.919 --> 00:26:30.119 Palestine and Israel and it's a series of small hills and the only other place 00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:34.240 that appears in the Old Testament is in 1 Chronicles 3. I know all of you read 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:40.319 1 Chronicles 3 this morning and are up on this but Moriah is the place where 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:46.319 the temple of Solomon will be built. It's a series of hills. It's the place 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:53.879 where Jerusalem will one day land. Even more on one of the hills of 00:26:53.879 --> 00:27:03.159 Moriah there will be a spot. One day the people will call it Golgotha. One day on 00:27:03.159 --> 00:27:10.200 one of the hills of Moriah we call it Calvary. You see? 1500 years from now. 00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:18.680 Isaac is meant to be a burn-off, an atonement for sin given up on the 00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:25.960 future site of Golgotha to God. And then thirdly and finally who? And the text 00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:33.720 says that Isaac is Abraham's only son, the one whom he loves. And Hebrews makes 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:38.680 even more of this. Hebrews says that he's his only begotten son and the reason 00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:43.440 that Hebrews says that is because in the Greek translation of the Old 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:52.519 Testament of Genesis the translator uses the word for begotten or beloved for 00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:56.960 Isaac. And this is the Bible that most of the New Testament authors were working 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.279 from, a Greek translation of the Old Testament. In other words in the Greek 00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:03.759 translation of the Old Testament it says Abraham was to give up his only begotten 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:13.000 son. The point is that in John 3.16 John is working with Genesis 22 and he's 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:17.960 saying God so loved the world that just like Abraham he gave up his only 00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:22.960 begotten son that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life. And so 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:28.440 you're getting the picture. You're getting the picture. What's happening here is 00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:36.120 that God is commanding Abraham to do this in order to dramatize to illustrate 00:28:36.120 --> 00:28:41.720 the relationship between God the Father and God the Son and how God is going to 00:28:41.720 --> 00:28:46.559 secure the blessing for the entire world. This is an illustration. God is 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:50.080 commanding this so that Abraham and Isaac would dramatize what's going to 00:28:50.080 --> 00:28:57.360 happen on the hill of Moriah, Golgotha on the cross some 1500 years later. That's 00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:01.479 the point. This was never about child sacrifice. The point the whole time was 00:29:01.479 --> 00:29:05.399 never that Isaac was going to be given up. It was never that this was a drama 00:29:05.399 --> 00:29:09.879 so that the people of God 1500 years before it would ever happen would know 00:29:09.879 --> 00:29:15.399 that God the Father the true and better Abraham would give the true and better 00:29:15.399 --> 00:29:23.199 Isaac. He would put the knife to his throat. Why? John 3.16, for God so loved 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:34.080 you that he would give up his only Isaac, his only begotten. It's no 00:29:34.080 --> 00:29:40.519 coincidence in Genesis 22.6 and we'll just close with this that Abraham laid 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:49.000 the wood on Isaac the sacrifice back to be carried up Golgotha's hill. A true 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:55.319 and better Isaac would do the exact same thing 1500 years later. What does this 00:29:55.319 --> 00:30:03.440 mean? I'll just close with an illustration. Stephen Curtis Chapman, famous 00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:10.519 CCM musician, contemporary Christian music. Yeah anybody in the CCM crowd. DC 00:30:10.519 --> 00:30:17.160 Talk, Newsboys, yeah some of you. No matter what you think about CCM this 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:23.000 matters not. Stephen Curtis Chapman is a very famous singer in the 90s in that 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:31.040 scene. He adopted a little girl from China. Her name was Maria. His sons 00:30:31.040 --> 00:30:37.920 were older and many of you know this about him and Will the teenage son 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:49.200 one day backed over Maria in their driveway. It's a terrible story and so 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:54.279 Stephen Curtis Chapman comes out of the house. He picks Maria up, he puts her in 00:30:54.279 --> 00:31:01.200 the car, she's dying and he's trying to save her life and they are 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:05.000 going to drive away to the hospital and she doesn't make it. She dies in the 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:10.400 car. This little five-year-old girl that he had adopted and months later in an 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:15.039 interview in 2008 on Good Morning America in the States with Robin 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:20.799 Roberts. They were talking about you know what their families like after 00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:25.680 this and how things were going and they especially focused on Will and how he was 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:34.440 coping with what he had done. He had killed his sister and Stephen Curtis 00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:40.440 Chapman was talking about his relationship with Will and as Stephen 00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:47.400 Curtis Chapman was driving away from the scene he rolled down the window and 00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:55.360 looked out to his son and said I love you as he was driving away. Sorry I don't 00:31:55.360 --> 00:32:03.720 usually do like this. Derek's the one that does this stuff not me. He looked out 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:08.759 at his son and he pointed at him and said son I love you. The son that had just 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:19.319 killed his daughter and the cross. The cross is the pronouncement of the father 00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:26.600 pointing at you, at us, at your worst, at your very worst. It's him pointing at 00:32:26.599 --> 00:32:36.919 you and saying son daughter I love you. At your very worst and he's saying I love 00:32:36.919 --> 00:32:41.679 you so much that I will put the knife to my to my better Isaac. My better than 00:32:41.679 --> 00:32:49.159 Isaac for you so that you know the hope of a resurrection life and that's the 00:32:49.159 --> 00:32:55.879 gospel and it's good news. Let's pray. Father thank you for the gospel thank you 00:32:55.880 --> 00:33:00.520 that you did not spare your own son for us but gave him up freely so that we 00:33:00.519 --> 00:33:28.480 might know resurrection hope. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.