February 26th Worship

Genesis 22:1-18 WHAT IS GOD DOING? I. Pulling you Closer. II. Pointing you to the Substitute. 1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." 3Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He 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." 6Abraham 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, 7Isaac 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?" 8Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9When 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. 10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12"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." 13Abraham 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. 14So 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." 15The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD , that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I 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, 18and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." In the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, dear Christian Friends, Things were going well for Abraham. A peace treaty had just been worked out with some pesky neighbors. No more problems for the servants out on the back 40. Abraham was a mature father- well into his 100’s Sarah was 90 when the baby was born but that boy named Isaac or laughter had brought much joy to the house. God had kept his promise. Abraham and Sarah had a son. Everything seemed to be going well. Now a thunderbolt comes out of the blue. “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, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” The Hebrew word translated here as "burnt offering" is Olah. An Olah offering is one you burn up completely to show your whole-hearted devotion to the Lord. When we hear the Lord’s words we wonder, “what will Abraham do?” What to do doesn’t seem to be the question on Abraham’s mind though. Immediately Abraham starts gets ready to do what God asked. “Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled 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.” What to do doesn’t seem to have been on Abraham’s mind, but I wonder if another question was on Abraham’s heart, “What was God doing?” We might wonder that same thing because sometimes we wonder about that in our lives when things happen that we don’t understand. Now I can’t pretend to know the mind of God and all the good things God was working out for good here for Abraham, but maybe we can think of a few things God was doing. I won’t pretend to know all of the good things God has in mind for you when things happen that you don’t understand but let’s try to see that the Lord is I. Pulling you closer and II. Pointing you to the Substitute. Moriah was the area of Israel where Jerusalem would one day stand and Mt. Moriah was were Solomon built the temple. It was about a 3 day journey from where Abraham and Isaac were living. So there would be time to think as they walked along. As Abraham’s heart was aching there would be time to think through the truths of God and His promises. Scripture gives us a look into one of the truths Abraham was settling his heart on. The Book of Hebrews says, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received 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.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” So you see Abraham was reviewing the promises of the Lord. God was pulling him closer. As Abraham mulled the truths that God is all power and is even stronger than death, he was thinking that if he sacrificed Isaac on the altar, that God the Lord of life would resurrect him from the dead. As we read on we hear that Abraham had a chance to exercise and to show his faith in God’s promises as the time arrives for Abraham and Isaac to separate from the servants. “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He 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." Do you hear that? We will come back to you-not I will come back to you. Abraham didn’t know how but he knew God would take keep his promise. God was pulling Abraham closer. As they walked along Abraham also had a chance to run through his mind God’s promises that He would provide. God was giving strength to Abraham’s legs and to his heart. Abraham had a chance again to show his faith when Isaac saw that the wood was there for making the sacrifice but there was no sacrifice. “Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." God was pulling Abraham closer. Did you hear the words earlier “God tested Abraham?” When teachers give tests, are they trying to make life difficult for their students? No, they care about their students and want to find out what they know and what needs to be taught differently or again. If that is true of earthly teachers, how much more isn’t it true of our great God and Father in heaven. James says that when God tests his children he has in mind to bless them. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” This week a member of the flying Wallenda family secured permission to tight rope walk across Niagara Falls. Apparently he has been tight rope walking since he was 2 years old. He will be the first person to ever cross directly over the falls. Past attempts took place further down the gorge. He says he will be “walking through the mist thrown off by the falls." Someone seeing him walking across the tightrope might ask “What is that guy doing?” It is actually very well choreographed in everything from the thickness of the wire right down to the suede wire-walking shoes which actually grip better when wet. Someone coming onto the scene on Mt. Moriah seeing Abraham with the knife raised might wonder what was Abraham doing? Or might What was God doing? Or looking around our lives this morning we might ask, “What Is God doing?” Have you been wondering what God is doing in your life lately? While God certainly doesn’t want evil to happen in anyone’s life, when bad things come our way in life God is strong and smart enough to choreograph everything. There is a safety net. God’s Word says, “When you are tempted God will always provide a way out.” Nothing happens without God’s permission. Remember Job? God limited Satan in what how he was able to tempt Job. Like the tight walker’s shoes grip tighter when it’s wet so God draws us closer to him – holds us tighter when troubles come. Difficult and challenging times give us a chance to paint God’s promises on our hearts. Abraham and Sarah had waited so long for a child. It would have been so easy for Abraham to put Isaac #1 in his life and moved his relationship with God somewhere down the list. When everything is going well for us in our lives it is easy for us to talk about trusting God’s promises. When things are going well at home, when we have money in the bank it's easy to talk about trusting in God's goodness and his promises. But what if God takes those things away from us? What if he asks us to give up the earthly things that hold near and dear? What would we do? This account of Abraham and Isaac is very difficult to listen to because I know that I would not do very well on a test like and maybe you do too. We question God’s ways when it comes to little things that go wrong in our lives. We question God’s love for us when things don’t go the way that we would like. During Lent the readings here in church are set up so that we hear about the events of Holy Week and Jesus’ sufferings and death on Wednesdays in the Midweek services. On Sunday we don’t use the Passion readings because the Sunday readings are set up to bring to mind Christ’s victories for us in His ministry. Did you notice Christ’s victory for us in the Gospel Lesson today as Jesus’ won the victory over the devil and his temptations in the wilderness. If this account ended right here it would not bring to mind a victory for me. If the account ended here we would be left to compare ourselves to the Abraham and I would fall far short and would imagine that you would too. And Abraham is not the standard God demands. God says, “Be perfect therefore as your Father in heaven in perfect.” Abraham was far from perfect in his trust in the Lord. That’s why what happened next is so important for us. What is God doing? II. Pointing us to the Substitute. 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." Abraham never did put that knife into Isaac's heart. The Lord stopped him and directed him the the bushes. Now usually when we talk about something getting caught in the bushes, it not a very good thing. Maybe you’ve had the experience of getting caught in the thorn bush. But can you imagine how happy Abraham was when the Lord called to him, told him not to harm his son and then to look in the bushes where the ram was caught for the burnt offering. Many years later Jesus told us about how Abraham felt when he saw the one the ram in the bushes was pointing his eyes to. Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad” 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." The angel of the Lord is one of the ways the Old Testament talks about Jesus before He took on flesh and blood. We know this is no ordinary angel talking but is God Himself because He says the first time He spoke, “you have not withheld from me.” And in the formal language of the covenant agreement God was renewing with Abraham God swears by Himself.” In that one sided covenant where God would do all the work, the Lord comes again with the promises of his mercy. Abraham’s family would soon be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Already at the time the children of Israel left Egypt it is thought they numbered into the millions. Abraham’s descendants would not live in tents like their wandering ancestor Abraham. The Lord would give the children of Israel a home in the land of Palestine to await the birth of the Savior of the world who would come from Abraham’s family. “All nations on earth would be blessed through Abraham” because that promised Savior would perfectly live His life as a Substitute for you and me and the world. He never told a lie or even a half truth because he was afraid. He never thought that God wasn’t working fast enough. He never doubted God’s plans for His life. According to the plan for His life, Jesus would now present Himself as the lamb who would offer Hi s life in payment for the sins of the world. Through Isaac who was spared and the Lamb who took his place, God points you to that substitute. Some of you may know Pastor Greg Schultz. In his book, The Problem of Suffering Pastor Schultz writes that on God’s test there is only one question. It is a true false question. God loves you- true or false. Of course the answer is true but sometimes it seems like it is false. Times when we might ask, “what is God doing?” He is pulling you closer and pointing you to the Substitute. Amen