This is ONLY a TEST
The other day I was driving and I had the radio on. It was one of those days when you hear the static over the radio, then a beep or a tone, and then this message,
“This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.”
They run these tests from time to time because… In order to know if something will do what it was created to do you have to put it to the test.
We get tested and we put others through tests all the time.
All through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college… We’re always being tested.
Sometimes we pass. Sometimes we fail!
Every tryout for every team, for every sport, for band, for theater, for dance, for… fill in the blank, We’re always being tested. Sometimes we pass and we make the team, sometimes we fail and we don’t.
Every job interview, every loan application… before every major moment or major event in your life there is some kind of test you have to pass in order to take the next step.
A few weeks ago my son decided he wanted to get a job and earn a little money. Alisha and I thought that was a great idea and we supported him in that decision. He decided where he wanted to work. He put in an application. But before they hired him, they interviewed him. He had to be put to the test, through their interview process, BEFORE they hired him.
Before every major moment or major event in your life there is some kind of test you have to pass in order to take the next step.
Tested by God
But what happens when God puts you to the test?
What if… In order to know if we will do what it is we were created to do we have to be put to the test?
When we get to Genesis 22, that is precisely the question with which we have to wrestle.
You may think that this question has already been asked and answered in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were in the garden and instructed NOT to eat from the tree at the very center of the garden. Of course, we know what happened there… they FAILED the test.
But with God, failure is never final.
Every test is an opportunity to fully rely on God, to experience the grace of God and to grow in our knowledge of the character of God.
You see this in the story of what happened in the life of a man named Abraham.
Genesis 22.1-19
1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
We’re TWO verses in and if you’re anything like me, you’ve got questions! Actually, you have ONE question…
Why in the world would God ask a father to sacrifice his son? Isn’t our God AGAINST child sacrifice?
That is THE QUESTION that makes reading this story so difficult.
What happens when God puts you to the test and he asks you to do something that would be impossible for anyone to do?
Before we try to answer that question, let’s back up and get a little perspective.
The PROMISE
If you rewind the story to Genesis 12, you find this moment when God calls Abraham to leave his home, leave his father, leave everything that he’s known and follow him by faith to an unknown place. And there God makes Abraham a PROMISE.
Genesis 12.1-3
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
The problem, of course, is that Abram who will later be called Abraham, doesn’t have any children. His wife Sara is barren. (Genesis 11.30) They can’t have kids.
But God has promised that he will be the father of a great nation. In fact, his name: Abram, means, “Exalted Father.” Which is an interesting name for a man with no kids. God will soon give him a new name, Abraham, which means, “Father of Many!”
And you can hear Abram’s doubt in the story. Listen to this conversation between Abram and God in Genesis 15…
Genesis 15.1-6
1 Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
2 But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. 3 You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
4 Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” 5 Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
Abram is 75 years old when God promises him that he will make him into a great nation in Genesis 12. (Genesis 12.4). But here we are in chapter 15 and he still has no kids! It would seem impossible enough for he and Sarai to have kids when he’s 75 years old and Sarai is 65! But somehow, Abram finds the faith to believe.
Remember The PROMISE
Over and over again, God reminds Abraham of this PROMISE. And then, when he is 100 years old and Sarah is 90 years old, they have a son and they name him Isaac.
So think about this, when Abraham is 75 years old, God promises him a son and that he will make him into a great nation. But that promise isn’t fulfilled until Abraham is 100 years old.
For 25 years Abraham is living in the tension of that unfulfilled promise.
For 25 years, Abraham is waiting. For 25 years, Abraham is questioning God, testing God.
All along the way God is patient with Abraham, giving grace to Abraham.
Even when Abraham and Sarah take matters into their own hands and Abraham fathers a son named Ishmael with another woman named Hagar, God is patient, faithful, and full of grace.
Even when Abraham lies not once, but twice, about Sarah being his wife and finds himself in a lot of trouble, God is patient, faithful, and full of grace.
Even when Abraham questions God and doubts God’s promise, God is patient, faithful, and full of grace.
After waiting 25 years, Abraham and Sarah have a son together. But Isaac isn’t just any son, he is the son of promise. He is the son that God said he would give them and through this son, through Isaac, God would make Abraham into a great nation.
And now, God is putting Abraham to the test.
The TEST
And that’s an important note. This is a TEST.
God is not a God who ever required child sacrifice. That was common practice in the worship of other gods, gods like Molech. Pagan worship often required child sacrifice. But the God of Abraham would never require such a thing. In fact, in you fast forward you’ll find an explicit command against child sacrifice in Leviticus 18.21:
“Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord.”
This story about Abraham and Isaac is NOT about child sacrifice. But it is about sacrifice, about presenting an offering, and ultimately it is about provision.
Remember…
Before every major moment or major event in your life there is some kind of test you have to pass in order to take the next step.
In order to know if we will do what it is we were created to do we have to be put to the test.
God says to Abraham…
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
The MOUNTAIN
By the way, Mount Moriah is a significant place. The name, Moriah, literally means, “YHWH Sees.”
This is the same mountain where one day, King David will build an altar and make a sacrifice to God in order to stop a plague that is coming against Israel because of his sin. (1 Chronicles 21.18)
This is the same mountain where one day, his son, King Solomon, will build the Temple where there will be an altar where sacrifice will be made every year in order to purify people, heal people, from their sin. (2 Chronicles 3.1)
This is the same mountain where, if you go to Israel today, you will see the city of Jerusalem and you will see Jews praying every day at the Western Wall of the same ancient Temple begging God to return and heal the land.
But it all started thousands of years ago when Abraham and Isaac climbed Mount Moriah, the place where “God Sees” or where “God is Seen.”
The JOURNEY
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
Right here… we see Abraham’s faith. He doesn’t know how, but he believes God will give Isaac back to him. He tells his servants… WE will worship and WE will return.
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
Underline that word, “provide.” In Hebrew, it’s the word “ra’ah.” It’s translated into English as provide but literally it means, “see to it.” In other words, God will “provide,” God will “see to it.”
So on Mt Moriah where “God Sees” God will “See To It” that they have something to sacrifice.
9 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.
In your Bible above chapter 22 you may have a heading that says something like, “The Sacrifice of Isaac.” In Jewish tradition this story is called, “The Binding of Isaac.” And this is why. Isaac is bound, the sacrifice is presented, Isaac is willing to be placed on the altar as a living sacrifice.
10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
57 times in the Old Testament we find this reference to “the angel of the LORD (YHWH).” Some scholars think this is a reference to Jesus. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But as we keep reading, we will find Jesus present in this story.
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
You have not withheld from me your one and only son… This is the key verse, the key moment where Abraham passed the test because of his willingness to present his one and only son as a sacrifice. Who could respond to this test with obedience? Yet somehow Abraham did.
When you read about this moment in the New Testament, you see that the Hebrew writer saw in Abraham obedience that enabled him to pass this test that was possible because of his tremendous faith.
Hebrews 11.17-19
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
Thankfully, Isaac didn’t die that day. The purpose of the test wasn’t to take anything away from Abraham, but it was so that Abraham could know God’s provision.
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Abraham named that place on Mount Moriah, the place where God Sees or God is Seen, Yahweh-Yireh, which means God will SEE TO IT, God will Provide!
The place where Abraham was tested became the place where Abraham was reminded of the promise.
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
Every test is an opportunity to fully rely on God, to experience the grace of God and to grow in our knowledge of the character of God.
When the Stone Table Cracked
A few weeks ago when the winter weather rolled in and school was out and everyone was home, we watched The Chronicles of Narnia movie, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” with the kids.
There’s a scene at the end of the movie when the White Witch comes for Edmund. By law she has the right the take Edmund and kill him on the Stone Altar because he is a traitor. Because of his sin against his family he must die.
But Aslan asks to speak to her alone. He gets the White Witch to renounce her claim on Edmund’s life. But what no one knows is that he has agreed to give his life for young Edmund’s.
That night, Aslan willingly goes to to the White Witch, to the Stone Altar. There he is bound by ropes, beaten, his mane is shaved, he is humiliated, and then he is killed.
Susan and Lucy are in the woods nearby watching and they can’t believe their eyes. They realize that a trade has been made. Aslan has taken the place of Edmund.
The White Witch and her evil companions leave and Lucy and Susan rush to Aslan. But he’s dead. They lay there all night in tears, not understanding, not comprehending what has happened.
Then morning comes. They get up to leave and as they begin to walk away, they hear something. They turn, they look, Aslan is gone. The Stone Table has been broken in two. And then, against the backdrop of the morning light, Aslan steps forward.
He’s alive! They hear the Lion roar! And then they learn that His sacrifice for Edmund has undone the sin of Edmund.
Then Aslan explains this to them:
God Will SEE TO IT
There on the Stone Table, Aslan SAW TO IT that a sacrifice was provided for Edmund.
There on Mt. Moriah, God saw to it that a ram was provided for Isaac.
And about 2000 years later, on a hill near Moriah called Golgotha, God would see to it that a sacrifice was provided for you and for me. On that hill, God the Father SAW TO IT that a LAMB was provided as a sacrifice on the altar of the cross, and then, three days later, the LION of JUDAH rose up from that Grave, resurrected for you and for me!
The stone was rolled away, the Stone Table was cracked, the Veil was torn, the curse was reversed, our sin was undone and now we are reunited with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!
Every test is an opportunity to be reminded of God’s Promise.
God will provide!
God will never test you beyond what he has promised and provided for you. And every test is an opportunity to be reminded of His Promise.
Whatever you’re going through, whatever time of testing your in, if you’re on Mt Moriah know that God sees you and God wants you to see him! And that God will SEE TO IT, that whatever you need it will be provided!
Our God is YHWH Yireh: The God who sees and will see to it!
God is remembered for his PROVISION!
Abraham is remembered for his FAITH.
Isaac is remembered for his willingness to be a LIVING SACRIFICE.
How will we be remembered?
Breath Prayer
So here’s the Breath Prayer I want to encourage you to pray this week:
Yahweh Yireh, Our God Who Sees and Who will See To It, help me remember today that You have provided and You will provide everything we need.
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