This evening we come to take a look at one of, if not the, most well known incidents in Abraham's life. This incident is well known not merely in the Christian world but the Muslim world celebrates the same story albeit with some detail changes.

The importance of this incident is underlined for us in a variety of ways.

1. The chapter contains the last words that God addressed to Abraham.

2. The events of this chapter are picked up on in the NT and recorded for our help and instruction in both in the Book of Hebrews and in the letter of James.

3. The chapter contains the first example in the Bible of a divine oath. Promises had been made before but now are confirmed by a solemn oath. This oath itself is picked in Hebrews where it underlines the certainty of God's promise.

So what are some of the lessons that we can learn from this particular incident?

Faith is Tested

At the beginning of the Bible's record of Abraham's life Abraham's faith is tested. God appeared to him and called upon him to leave his father's family and to head off into the unknown relying only upon God's promise. Abraham was called upon to cut the ties with his past and to move forward in obedience trusting in God.

Subsequently in his life Abraham was called upon to listen to God's word and to trust Him to keep His promises. We have seen over recent weeks how sometimes this tested him greatly.

Now here when Abraham has walked many years with the LORD and has proved His faithfulness again and again Abraham is tested again.

God comes to Abraham in ch.22 to try his faith, to prove his faith. That is He was to put Abraham once more to the test. Will Abraham trust the LORD when what he is called upon to do goes against everything that Abraham, humanly speaking, wants to do? What is more, will Abraham trust the LORD when what he is called to do seems to be in direct contradiction to what the LORD has previously said to him?

Let's pause and take note that:

a) God tests faith – that is we are not tested as mere victims of circumstance.

b) The testing of our faith may well be something that takes place repeatedly during our lives.

c) The testing of our faith may well become more serious as we grow older.

d) The testing of our faith is no indication that our faith is weak.

e) The testing of our faith may well be the precursor to great blessing.

f) Our faith is made evident by our obedience.

What exactly was this test that Abraham had to undergo?

It wasn't that Abraham had somehow dreamed up some imagined test as a quirk of his psychological make-up. No, God spoke clearly to Abraham and Abraham was in no doubt at all as to what was asked of him.

It is helpful for us to underline this. One of the dangers we face in considering such a passage is that we identify with the one we see as the central character – Abraham. And then we begin to wonder how we would have reacted had we been there. Then we might be tempted to think of some parallel in our current lives and convince ourselves that the Lord is testing us there! But we don't need to work up such "tests" for ourselves!! God initiated this test for Abraham and will initiate the tests He thinks we need in His own good time and in His own good ways.

God identified very clearly what He was asking Abraham to do. Ishmael had been sent away by now and Isaac was in a very real sense Abraham's only son. God knows too how very precious Isaac is to Abraham – your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. And this son Abraham is to offer to God as a sacrifice of burnt offering!

Surely Abraham must have been deeply troubled by this. He loved his son and what is more the promises that he had received from God focussed on Isaac. All of Abraham's future hopes (not to mention the future hopes of all the nations of the world) were centred upon Isaac – the seed long promised was to pass through that line because God had declared it so! And now God was telling him to sacrifice Isaac.

And yet what do we find? Abraham just gets on with walking the path of obedience. Maybe he can't understand how it will all work out but his faith declares that work out it somehow must for God is in it all!

Abraham is up early the next morning to get on with what the LORD has told him to do. He makes all the necessary preparations too. He's going on a journey – he won't get to his destination until the third day but he takes care at the outset that he has what he will need: wood for the offering is taken!

When Moses met with the LORD on Mt. Sinai the instructions were given that the people were to take two days to prepare themselves for meeting the LORD on the third day. Are we to understand Abraham's experience in this way - days of preparation before that oh so significant meeting with God on the third day? Is Abraham's experience to set something of a pattern?

Perhaps during those days spent in travelling Abraham was wrestling with what he knew of the LORD's promises. Perhaps it was on the journey that he had come to conclude that if God was to bless through Isaac and Isaac was to die at Abraham's own hand then the LORD must be planning to raise Isaac from the dead. That Abraham had arrived at this most remarkable conclusion is certainly what the writer to the Hebrews tells us. And what a remarkable testimony to Abraham's faith that indeed was! None up to this point had been raised from the dead – but Abraham has his confidence in the LORD and not in circumstances and statistics!!

Abraham's faith is repeatedly underlined: he tells his servants not to proceed any further and then informs them that both he and Isaac will return v.5.

Even as Isaac asks him that question that must have torn into his heart: "where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham responds by confidently speaking of his trust in God: "God will provide for Himself the lamb".

Moses slows down his account as the crucial moment comes ever nearer – the details are laid out one after the other. But the climax must come and now Abraham has his hand raised ready to slaughter his own son.

And Abraham doesn't know that the Angel of the LORD is going to intervene!!

We know that God has no intention of seeing Isaac slain and intervenes to stay Abraham's hand – but Abraham didn't. Abraham wasn't acting out some part in a play of pretend faith and tests – it was so real for Abraham!!

And the Angel of the LORD calls out in earnest to stop Abraham: "Abraham, Abraham" he calls!

What a test?

The LORD Provides

I wonder who you identify with as you read this particular story. My reaction is to ask myself how I would have got on had I been in Abraham's position. I identify with him. It is however quite likely that the Israelites for whom Moses wrote would have identified more readily with Isaac! After all they were there standing on the borders of the Promised Land because of Isaac – they were all descended through him!

Their very existence was at the centre of this story. What then would stand out to them as they heard this story?

Their life hung in the balance as Abraham had his knife raised but the knife didn't fall on Isaac because God intervened and provided Himself a lamb for a burnt offering!

The Israelite then looking at this story could see very clearly that he owed his very life and existence to that ram that had been caught in the thicket and which had been offered as a substitute for Isaac. We read in v.13:

"And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son."

And in the very next verse the place is named to highlight just what has taken place.

v.14 "So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”"

Here we find for the first time in the Bible the principle of a substitutionary sacrifice being made plain.

The Israelites would not have failed to see this as they had had another similar experience as their captivity in Egypt was coming to an end. Do you remember the last of the 10 plagues that the LORD caused to fall upon Egypt? It was the death of the first born wasn't it? But Israel was spared wasn't it? Do you remember how? A spotless lamb was taken and sacrificed and the blood of the sacrifice was taken and painted onto the door frames of their houses the night that the Angel of Death was to pass through the land. You know, don't you, that wherever the Angel saw the blood he passed over and the inhabitants inside were safe – all of them. But where there was no blood there were wails and cries that night as the first born died.

The Israelites in Egypt had been told to sacrifice and told how then to proceed – no naturalistic explanation could have suggested to them that this would be effective. God had told them what to do as he provided a means of safety through the establishment of substitutionary sacrifices – the first born in Israelite homes were safe because a lamb had paid with its lifeblood.

God provides.

Through the sacrificial system this same substitutionary principle was at work – a man would bring an animal to the priests, confess his sins laying his hands upon its head signifying a transfer of guilt and the animal died – the sinner went free.

And on into the NT we find the supreme sacrifice of substitution taking place as the One who is identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world takes His place on the scene of history.

And now as we enjoy spiritual life reconciled to God it is all down to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life as a ransom for sin, died in our place the just for the unjust!

God provided in Abraham's day. God provided in Israel's history. God provides for the sins of the World by sending us His Son, the Saviour of the World!!

Faith rewarded – God continues to provide

Abraham has passed the test. His faith has triumphed and he is now rewarded.

But let's not imagine that he has somehow forced God's hand or wrung a blessing that God was unwilling to grant. Faith is always a gift of God and Abraham has exercised a God-given ability. And yet when God grants His gifts He delights to consider them as truly belonging to His people and then rewards them as though the faith were their own.

Example of a father who gives money to a child for the child to buy him a birthday present.

And God responds with great generosity.

Promises had previously been made to Abraham. Back in ch.12 these promises were conditional upon obedience but now they are confirmed and advanced. No longer are they conditional but unconditional God pledges Himself by an oath to establish His promises. Abraham has demonstrated his faith by his obedience and now is richly rewarded.

How gracious and generous God is!!

May we learn in our lives to trust God, to evidence that trust by our quick and ready obedience to Him and may we too grow in our confidence that it is indeed the LORD who provides!