Scripture/Sermon of the Day. July 2, 2023

Genesis 22:1-14

The Command to Sacrifice Isaac

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill[a] his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide,”[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I. There’s a verse in Deuteronomy that says: “for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 13:3)

II. A few weeks ago I was asked a question about the the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus tells us to pray to God: “Lead us not into temptation.” And the question was, would God ever intentionally bring temptations before us? Why do we have to pray and ask God not to do this?

III. One of the most well-known tests in the Bible, other than the command for Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, is the test of Job at the beginning of that book. Satan and God are talking to each other and God boasts about how faithful Job is. Satan tells God that Job has no reason not to be faithful — he has everything he wants. “Let’s test him,” says Satan. “Let me take everything away from him and I bet he’ll lose his faith, and curse you.” God said: “You’re on. You can make his life as agonizing and miserable as you like, but don’t kill him.” And Satan does that. Job loses his children, his property, his health. Satan took everything but his life, and Job hurt so badly, he begged God to take that too. Job lost everything — except his faith. Job passed the test, and Satan lost his bet. But people still read this and ask, “Why did God let that happen? A bet with Satan at the expense of Job’s life?”

IV. But those people miss the point. Spiritually, Job grew through that ordeal. He said to God: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear — but now I see you. I repent.” Job grew closer to God. That’s the goal of our lives.

IV. Look at the first thing Job did after he saw God — he prayed for the friends who betrayed him, and saved them from God’s punishment. Job was a rich man, a law abiding citizen, but not too interested in other people. Now, at the end of the book, his heart beat with the hearts of everyone — he had become one with God, one with the universe, and one with his neighbor. Even before Jesus, Job had the mind of Christ.

V. And this is where God is leading Abraham in his final test, Abraham’s final exam towards the transformation of his soul, the mind of Christ. For ten chapters, God chips away at Abraham. First God cut him off from his family, and his home, and his country — then he’s cut off from his hopes and expectations of a son, because that promise seemed to fail. Then he has a son through his wife’s Egyptian slave, Hagar, but he loses them also. When he and Sarah finally had a son, Isaac, — now God wanted Abraham to give up Isaac too.

VI. Our lives are a process of acquiring, and then letting go. We acquire things, money, relationships, strength — and then God takes it all back, maybe over time, or quickly. Why? Because by the time we finish grade school — by the time those children down the street at Dunbar Hill School graduate the sixth grade, they are so filled with things, their parents ideas, their families, all the stuff they have PLUS the stuff they don’t have but want. Kids are filled with those dreadful cell phones and TikTok, games, media, misinformation! By the time we finish sixth grade we are so filled with everything — there’s no room for God. So God makes space in us by taking things away.

VII. Look how old Abraham was — 75 — when God told him — “I’ve got big plans for you — but first we’ve got to clear all the clutter in your life and make a place for me in your heart — we’ll start with the big one — your family, your house, your country — cut those off right now.” And the process continued for twenty five years, until Isaac was born — and when Isaac was about 20, and Abraham was 120, God said, “OK — now your son. We’re almost there — there’s almost enough room in your heart for me to move in completely. I need to know I’m more important than even your son.”

VIII. Notice in the reading, Abraham didn’t say a word in protest. And God said, “Now Abraham is ready to be a blessing to everyone, because Abraham is gone — he is dead — and only I live in him to bring my blessing to all who live. ABRAHAM IS GONE, AND NOW, ONLY I AM.”

ISAAC WAS THE LAST NAIL IN ABRAHAM’S COFFIN.

John the Baptist said it this way: “God must become greater in me; I must become less.” HOW CAN WE DO THIS? WE’RE JUST MORTALS! We’re not Abraham, we’re not John the Baptist, we’re not Mary, the mother of Jesus.

We can let God become greater in us while we become less because we know — we have faith like Abraham — that “God will provide.” God will show us the way, like God showed Abraham, and John the Baptist, and Mary.
That’s the good news for us this 4th of July weekend!

God will provide.