Hebrews 11:17-18 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Today's episode talks about Abraham's faith and how strong it was. It talks about how amazing it is that he was able to keep the faith even when tested in such a big way. You can pass the test too! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Will Provide
Hebrews 11:17-18 “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”
This morning I saw something that I hadn’t seen before. Almost every paragraph in Hebrews 11 begins with two words, “by faith.” I also didn’t realize how many different people the chapter talks about. I am not sure I will cover all of them, but I will do a few more. I also discovered, when reading most of the chapter this morning, that the chapter begins with a definition of faith. I thought this would be a good thing to share with you as well. The definition can be found in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” I think this is particularly important when we talk about today’s verse.
God asked Abraham to offer Isaac, his only son, the one that God promised Abraham and Sarah they would conceive, even though Abraham was about 100 and Sarah was about 90. God had said to Abraham, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Yet, God is asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac now. This must have been confusing to Abraham. Let me read you Genesis 22:1-19 “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded 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. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 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.” 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, 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?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 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. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “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.” 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. 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.” The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.”
I know that was a lot to read and yet I thought it was important for everyone to know the story of how Abraham was tested because we might all have times when we are tested. Has God ever asked you to do something and you really didn’t understand why? Has He asked you to do something which seemed to contradict something else He already told you? God told Abraham that he was going to use Isaac to build a nation of Abraham’s descendants and then God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. That must have been confusing, and yet as you see above in Genesis 22:8 Abraham says to Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Abraham had faith that God would provide a lamb for the burn offering. He had faith even though God told him his son was to be the burnt offering. He had faith even though he didn’t have any idea what was going to happen on top of that mountain. Abraham had faith that He and Isaac would both be coming back down that mountain and yet he wasn’t sure what he was going to experience on that mountain. He told the servants in Genesis 22:5 “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” He didn’t say I will come back to you, he said we will come back to you.
I think this is amazing. I wonder how Abraham could be so sure that God was not going to take his son. Then when I think about it I realize that Abraham was able to have that trust in God because of two reasons. First, he knew God. I mean really knew God. He was close with God, and he knew the kind of God he is. Abraham knew that God was against child sacrifice. He knew he did not agree with other god’s requiring child sacrifice. Second, Abraham knew that God always keeps his promises. He knew that if God said that through Isaac his offspring would be reckoned then it would happen just as God said. This must have been how Abraham knew they would both come back down the mountain. However, that doesn’t mean that Abraham knew he wouldn’t have to sacrifice his son. He might have thought he had to sacrifice him and then God would bring Isaac back to him. We don’t know what Abraham was thinking from moment to moment.
This story of Abraham and Isaac is the third type of faith I wanted to talk to you about this week. This is a faith that God will find a way through even when you don’t see one. I am sure Abraham did not understand how he could sacrifice Isaac and yet Isaac would still be alive to have all these offspring. He didn’t see a way and yet he trusted their was one. The same can be true for us. We don’t have to understand how it will happen. We don’t have to know the plan, we just have to be obedient to what God is calling us to do and God will work the rest out. I feel it is important to remember that God may test us. He asked something of Abraham that was big and required a lot of faith. Maybe he is doing the same to you.
What if we looked at each challenge in our lives as a test of faith? How would you look at things differently if you thought like this? Would it change how you viewed the situation? For instance, if you have a loved one in the hospital, or at home and yet they are very sick. Would it change how you prayed if you looked at the situation as a test. Remember the definition of faith is “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” I love this definition. Can we be confident in what we hope for even when we don’t see a way to get it? Can we be assured it will happen when we don’t see how it will happen? I have been told that hope is not as easy as I think it is. I know hope is not easy and yet, what is the alternative? Do we just give up on our dreams so that we don’t get disappointed? Do we stop believing it will happen because it hasn’t yet, because it seems hopeless, because it hurts less to not hope? I don’t know, only you can answer that. For me, I am going to have hope. I am going to keep hoping even when it hurts because what if this is the test? What if God just needed me to have hope for one more day and I gave up a day too early? I don’t know if that is a thing, but what if Abraham had said no. What if he had hope and faith until he got up on that mountain and then when it was time to put Issac on the wood he said no? We don’t know what would have happened, only God knows that. We don’t know because Abraham didn’t say that. He kept the faith the whole time. You can too.
I know it is painful when we hope for things and they don’t happen, and I don’t have an answer for that. I hoped, I had faith, I prayed for my friend Iris to be cured of cancer while she was here on earth and yet God healed her in heaven instead. I prayed, I hoped, I had faith that God would raise my friend’s husband after he passed and He didn’t. I know it can hurt to have faith and hope and then not get what we hoped for. I also know so many more instances where I had confidence in what I hoped for and assurance in what I could not see and God did come through. I had hope, even though it was hard, and God worked his miracles in ways I will never understand. When you are struggling to have hope, look to Abraham. When things don’t make any sense, when you are confused, when things look impossible, look to Abraham and have faith in God anyway. God is for you, not against you. He can find a way, He can make a way. Nothing is impossible for God. Move forward In Faith!
Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to have faith, please help us. Help us to have the faith of Abraham. Help us to know you in the deep and intimate way that Abraham knew you. Help us to trust the lives of our loved ones in your hands just as Abraham did. Give us the strength, the courage and the faith to say yes when you ask us to do things that don’t make any sense to us. We love you Lord, we know you are good. We know you are for us and not against us. Help us to say yes more often. Help us to have hope, even when its hard. We are so grateful for all you do and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!