XI - Genesis 22 and 23 - Abraham Tested

Every person of faith can expect to have his/her faith tested. These are the times we are challenged to think and act on the basis of trust, not understanding. Sometimes if we wait and try to gain understanding, it will be too late to act properly.---------------------In looking at Genesis chapter 22, it is important to realize that all the previous chapters about Abraham build up to this event: As you read the first 2 verses, try to put yourself in Abrahams place. Many years ago, God made you a promise to make you a great nation, which means you would need offspring to even begin this. Yet, as you age, year after year, God had not acted toward this promise. When a son is finaly born (to Sarah's servant Hagar) God tells you that this son will not be the one. Then, after quite a few years, God indeed fulfills his promise and Sarah concieves and delivers Abraham the son that God says will carry the bloodline of the great and holy nation. ---------------- Now Abraham is 100 years old and I'm sure he is enjoying watching young Isaac grow as a boy, loving his son Isaac as all of us fathers do. But I'm also certain that Abraham's love for Isaac was even more intense because of how long Abraham and Sarah had to wait for this child. Now, in verse 2, God tells Abraham that he must offer up Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham knew what this meant. (just a quick note: Child sacrifice was practiced in the Canaanite religions that surrounded Abraham, so he a was familiar with such things. However, the Bible later makes it very clear that this practice is prohibited, Lev.18 and Deut.18) This meant that Abraham would have to kill his only son and burn his body atop an altar. Think about this for just a moment.-----------------------The Bible does not tell us how Abraham felt about this directive from God. But it tells in detail what he did. He obeyed God to the fullest. ------------------It took three days journey for Abraham and Isaac to get to the place God had chosen for the sacrifice to take place. It must have brought tears to Abraham's eyes when young Isaac asked in verse 7 "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham unknowningly prophesied that God Himself will provide the Lamb. We're reminded that God does actually provide the Lamb to be the sacrifice for all of our sins John 1.36: " And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he (John the Baptist) saith, Behold the Lamb of God!" KJV------------------------Abraham proceeded to build the altar, place the wood on it, place his son Isaac upon the wood, and drew his knive, and drew the knife back to kill his beloved son. He did all this before God had an angel intervene to stop him. Just in the knick of time. What great faith Abraham had. We all owe Abraham a debt of gratitude. I have no idea what the world would be like today had Abraham not been obedient, but I do know it would be very different.--------------------Verse 13 tells that God did in fact provide a ram to be sacrificed in Isaac's place. Verse 15 - 18/ tells how the angel then repeats God's promise. Verse 18: through Abraham's offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed (through Christ), because you have obeyed Me.----------------------- Verses 20 - 24 tell more geneology, but particularly noteworthy is the name Rebekah. We'll learn more about her very soon.-------------------------Chapter 23 opens up with Sarah's death. She was 127 years old. Abraham mourned and wept over her. Those two went through so much together. The remainder of chapter 12 describes how powerful a man Abraham had become that the Canaanites continued to bend over backwards to have peace with Abraham because of the well-acknowledge power of the God of Abraham.-----------------This just about concludes our study of the great patriarch Abraham. We'll begin looking at Isaac on the next blog post. I do not like to leave Abraham so abruptly, so to briefly summarize: Abraham was not a perfect man, but he was the standard of the level of faith to which we should all aspire. Abraham trusted God, although he was side-tracked on occasion. At times, he tried to take matters into his own hands. We, like Abraham, sometimes falter. But our prayer should be that we (also like Abraham) may learn to act more often out of our trust in God, rather than trust in ourselves or other human beings.