Audio Tapes # 49,    Nov 12, 2000       (Notes Updated Nov 12, 2000)

Don't miss the pictures of the zoo days. The Lord willing, Creation Creature Features soon.

Review: (Gen 1-21) See the previous sermon notes on the Web -

The Text (Blue Letter Bible): Genesis 22
(Strong's numbers, Hebrew-Greek lexicons, cross references, etc., can be accessed from the above link)

Brief Outline, Exposition, and Commentary - 

Significant Scriptures That Help Explain Gen 22:
*  Heb 11; Romans 5 & 12; Luke 9:23-26; 22:39-46; Psa 22; Isa 53; John 17

Background & Overview:  
Genesis 22 is the record of the greatest test of faith in the life of Father Abraham and Isaac the Son of promise.  It's a type, a foreshadowing, of the voluntary choice that God the Father and God the Son made in order to pay for our rebellious sin.  

Please remember, God never tempts us to fail (James 1:13-15).  The world, the flesh, and the Devil do that.  Every situation that comes into our life is both a test and a temptation.  Each is a dangerous opportunity.  The key is how you respond to God and to the circumstances.  From God's perspective, every trial is a test of faith (James 1:2-15), which merely means it's an opportunity to exercise submissive faith and grow stronger in the character of God's love.  

Even believers, must learn obedience through trials and consequences (Rom 5; 8:28-29; Jam 1:2-8).  Yet God is faithful, and will always fulfill his covenant promises (1 Cor 10:13; Philip 1:6).  Nothing sneaks past God, folks.  God stops millions of problems, temptations and situations from entering our lives (Gen 20:6).  So He obviously has a special plan for everything that He does choose to allow into our experience.  Here are two of the most important reasons:

#1 - So we can learn how much we need Him, and how faithful He always is.
#2 - So that our submissive faith, as we manifest the awesome fruit of His Spirit, the character of His Son (Gal 2:20; 4:19; 5:22-25), can witness to those around us.  When they see His "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" through us, then they will think, "Wow, that's not natural.  It looks supernatural (different from the way of this world)".  And when they ask us why, we can tell them it's because of Jesus.  Folks that Christ-esteem, not self-esteem!  It's His Way, not ours.  Only God can live His goodness in and through us!

Gen 22:1-2 God's command to sacrifice the son of promise:

-  God appears to Abraham, after the hard lessons learned in Chapters 12-21.
-  God commands Isaac's sacrifice; Abraham responds in submissive faith.
-  God didn't need to know Abraham's heart.  The purpose was to prove (reveal) hearts to the people involved, and allow them to practice faith. 

Gen 22:3-14 A Father's faithful exercise of authority, & a son's submissive faith:

-  Journey from Beersheba to Jerusalem was over 20 hours.
-  Left servants & donkey, so Father and Son could be alone.
-  "We will worship and come back to you" !!  
-  Heb 11:19 "believing God was able to raise him up, even from the dead".

Example:  Me and my little boy, Michael, before, during, and after his heart surgeries.  "Dad, could I die in this surgery?" . . . . 
Other Examples: Your son being drafted into the military, or your daughter given in marriage.  Or a new baby and the concern about how you'll provide for it.

-  Jehovah Jireh (Yahweh Yireh) = God sees, appears, and provides.
-  Father & Son slowly build the altar of wood.  Isaac is tied up and laid on it.
-  Abraham raises the knife to spill his son's blood (life).  Isaac obeys.
-  THE Angel of the LORD calls Abraham by name twice, and says STOP.
-  It's not necessary, it's not God's way.  (Man's works, not even human sacrifice can fix the problem between man and God).  
-  "Now I know that you fear God, for you have not withheld your only (Son of Laughter/Joy) from Me."
-  Abraham sees a ram STUCK in the bushes, and uses it as a substitute.
-  v. 14 The place is named, Y-Y; "on the mountain of the LORD, it shall be provided".

Gen 22:15-19    The Second Call & the Promise Restated:

-  The Angel of the Lord swears by His name (Gen 26:3; Exo 13:5; Psa 89:30-37; 132:11; Heb 6:13).  God's Word is trustworthy, and He alone is able to fulfill the promise of salvation (Psa 37:5; Philip 1:6).
-  Abraham was already saved by faith alone, so he didn't have to work to keep his salvation eternally (ultimately).  But from a temporal viewpoint, his abundant life and the ease of victory in the task here on earth was dependent on obedience.  This played out the same for Israel as a nation later on, when they were to take the promise land and remove the pagan (child-sacrificing) residents completely.
-  "Because you obeyed" (Gen 12 & 15 Unconditional, unilateral)

1.  You will be blessed with many descendants.
2.  They will possess the gates of their enemies (Rom 16:20).
3.  All nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed.

-  This is not a declaration of salvation by human works, but of God's sovereign hand of providence.  God provides the Way, His Son the God-Man (John 14:6). 
-  Salvation and progressive sanctification are by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of His Son, Jesus, apart from man's works (Gal 2:20-3:10).

-  Why did God command and do all of this to Abraham and Isaac?
-   Keil, on p. 252, describes it well.  He says it was to purify their hearts from "the dross of self-love . . . . and so to transform it into love to God . . . ."
-  Also, to show that human sacrifice (human works) are wrong.

Mat 10:³⁴ "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵"For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; ³⁶"and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ ³⁷"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹"He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.'"
John 3:^{16 '}"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.'"

Practical Principles to Apply:
*  God is good and in control.  Nothing sneaks past Him.  Trust Him!
*  Human sacrifice is not necessary or acceptable in God's sight. (Keil, p. 248)
*  Trials are necessary exercises, to reveal man's sin, God's goodness, 
    & trials provide opportunities for us to grow.
*  Submissive faith through trials is God's Way for us to grow.
*  True love responds with submissive faith and obedience.
*  Self-love if it is greater than love for God is sin.

Current Parallels in the News:

Abortion = The sacrifice of children for the desires of self.  
God's love = the sacrifice of self for the needs of our children.

Child Sacrifice Praised by Muslim, Arab Leader (November 10, 2000)  Distortion/deception

"The Mufti of Jerusalem, the city's highest Muslim religious authority, is calling for the complete "liberation" by Palestinians not only of Jerusalem, but of all of Israel, and stresses that "sacrifice" and "martyrdom" of Palestinian children prove that "the new generation will carry on the mission with determination."  . . . Stressing that "Every Palestinian is, in fact, in a state of Jihad," Sabri praised the Palestinian "martyrs," and particularly the children that are proudly thrust by their parents and other combatants into the frontlines of conflicts with Israelis."  . . .  "They willingly sacrifice their offspring for the sake of freedom. It is a great display of the power of belief. The mother is participating in the great reward of the Jihad . . . ."