Testing, Obedience and Sacrifice
Three Key Takeaways
God's testing purifies, it doesn’t destroy. God tested Abraham to purify his heart, not tempt him to do wrong. Job said, "When he has tested me, I shall come out as gold." The central point: God's testing aims to make us more like Christ, taking us on a journey into purity and Christlikeness.
Abraham's story foreshadows Jesus's sacrifice. Two thousand years before Christ, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his "only son, whom you love" on Mount Moriah—the future site of the temple and of Jesus's crucifixion. God provided a ram in Isaac's place, highlighting the main point: it points directly to Jesus, the ultimate substitute and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
Radical obedience flows from faith in God's power. Abraham's obedience sprang from faith that God could raise the dead, not mere duty. He said, "The Lord will provide." The main message: when following Jesus feels like death, we look ahead knowing resurrection follows death in the Christian story. God's goodness, wisdom, and power will be revealed..
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Testing, Obedience and Sacrifice
This is the seventh and final week of a series through the life of Abraham. We now arrive at the climactic moment of his story, which may be one of the most intense chapters in the Bible.
It's a well-known story: God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. If you're coming to this Scripture for the first time, the natural response is shock and horror. You may wonder: What is God doing telling a follower to sacrifice his son? That seems fundamentally wrong.
Understanding the Context
We should remember that part of this narrative's purpose was to distinguish the followers of the Lord from all the surrounding religions of the day. Abraham was following God in an era surrounded by false gods, nearly all of which demanded child sacrifice as worship.
This actually helps make sense of whole sections of the Bible. Why did God tell them to destroy certain peoples? Sometimes it was because of the practices they were engaged in as part of the worship of their God. Why is God so anti these false gods? Because they demanded that people sacrifice their children.
This whole story is designed to ask and then answer the question: Is the God of Israel the same as all these other gods? At first glance, you're wondering, maybe He is. It takes you on a dramatic journey: Is our God like those other gods? Then it answers in ways more spectacular than we could even imagine—not just with a simple no, but with something way more profound.
We're going to work through the passage twice: first through the lens of Abraham's testing—this journey of faith he's been on; then through what it reveals about God and the unfolding Bible story.
Abraham's Testing
Genesis 22:1-19 says:
"After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'"
Right at the beginning, the narrator tells us God is testing Abraham. This is something God is initiating, something He's purposefully doing. It's important to understand: God is not tempting Abraham to do wrong. He is testing Abraham because He wants him to do right. That's an important distinction.
There's a beautiful verse in Job 23 where Job reflects on his severe testing. He says God goes ahead of me, He's behind me, on my left hand, on my right hand. I can't see Him. I don't know what He's doing. Then he says, "But when he has tested me, I shall come out as gold."
That's a biblical perspective on testing. God's purpose in testing is not to show us all our flaws and remind us how bad we are. It's to purify our hearts so that we come out as gold, so that we become more like Him, so that we go on this journey He wants to take us on into Christ's likeness, into purity, to become the kind of people we actually want to become but can't on our own.
That's the journey Abraham is going on.
THE COMMAND
Verse 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 of which I shall tell you.'"
This is quite a deliberate statement. "Take your son, your only son, Isaac." He names him. "Whom you love." This is a fourfold designation to make the point to Abraham, and to us, that what God is asking him is to give over the most precious thing that he has.
It deliberately slows us down to show this is a profoundly significant moment for Abraham, when God is requiring everything from him.
It's also helpful to understand that, because of the religious and cultural understanding of sons at the time, the firstborn son represented the family unit. The firstborn son was often sacrificed, got the majority of the inheritance, and represented the family name.
When God asks Abraham to make this sacrifice, he understands it within that framework. "This is how our family needs to be made right with God. Maybe this is the way God's going to do it, as terrible as it seems." It makes more sense to him within that cultural context.
Abraham's Obedience
"So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him."
On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you."
Notice what he says: "We will come again to you." There's faith here. Abraham believes somehow, some way, both he and Isaac will return.
The writer of Hebrews comments on this moment, saying that Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. That's his faith. He knows what God's asked him to do. He also knows that God has promised that through Isaac, all these descendants will come. So somehow, even if Isaac dies, God will raise him from the dead.
"And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took the fire and the knife in his hand. So they went both of them together."
Isaac is carrying the wood for his own sacrifice, foreshadowing Jesus carrying the cross.
"And Isaac said to his father Abraham, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' He said, 'Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'"
Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
The Climax
"When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son."
"But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'"
God stops Abraham. The test is complete. Abraham has demonstrated radical obedience and faith.
"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."
God provides a substitute. The ram dies in Isaac's place.
What This Tells Us About God
Now let's work through it again through a different lens. What does this tell us about God and the rest of the Bible story?
God says, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love." This exact same language is used later in the New Testament to describe God's relationship with Jesus. God's only Son, whom He loves.
The place God tells Abraham to go is Mount Moriah. That mountain became the site of Jerusalem. It became the site of the temple. It became the place where thousands upon thousands of sacrificial animals were offered up in place of sin.
But ultimately, it culminated in the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, on those mountains, in our place.
Isaac carries the wood for his own sacrifice, just as Jesus carried the cross.
Isaac asks, "Where is the lamb?" Abraham says, "God will provide for Himself the lamb."
Two thousand years later, when Jesus appears, John the Baptist points to Him and says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
God provides a ram to die in Isaac's place. That ram is a substitute. But it's pointing to the ultimate substitute—Jesus, who dies in our place.
The angel says to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Abraham didn't withhold his only son. But God did not withhold His only Son. God gave His only Son for us.
Abraham named that place "The Lord will provide." As it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided."
Abraham's Obedience and Christ's Obedience
The angel called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, "By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."
Abraham's obedience becomes part of the covenant—this is a central point. God's promise and Abraham's commitment together form the foundation for this covenant.
That becomes a picture of how God's promise and Christ's obedience become the covenant that goes to the whole world.
Jesus is not only our substitute in that He takes our sin on Himself, but also His perfect obedience becomes the covenant with His Father in heaven that we enter into.
The Bible Is Remarkable
This story, 2,000 years before Christ was sacrificed, was foreshadowed. It was announced. It was pictured. It's like a hidden message. When people who aren't believers read this passage, it might not click. But when the lights go on, and God reveals it, you read it and think, "How can I not be a believer?"
God has announced in advance what He will do. He's announced it not just in bare fact, but in beautiful stories and beautiful prose. Not just in writing, but in actual activity, in actual people's lives. He has done something that announces what He's going to do with His own Son Himself.
Radical Faith and Obedience
God calls us to radical faith and obedience. There will be times in our lives that feel brutal in the way we feel like God is dealing with us. But as we said about Abraham, it's not a morbid obedience. It's not just this sense of, "Well, God said this thing and therefore I've got to do it, and it'll probably be miserable."
Sometimes we say to each other, "Where do you feel called to?" "Well, I don't feel called to go here, so that's probably what I'll end up doing." We've got this idea of, "God wants to spoil any fun you might have. Stoic obedience to God's commands is what we're called to."
But actually, what you see here is that Abraham's faith is what is at the centre of his obedience. It's his understanding: I serve the God that can raise the dead. The Lord will provide on this mountain. So I'm doing this not because I'm expecting it to work out badly. I'm doing this because I'm expecting God to do something supernatural.
That is the kind of supernatural, obedient faith that we are called into. When we walk into a journey that feels really challenging, really hard, we do so knowing that God will be faithful. I know that His power is incredible. I know His wisdom is way above mine. Therefore, I'm actually excited to see how this is going to work.
Even if it doesn't work out in some triumphant story at the end, God's goodness is still going to shine through. God's wisdom will still be proved perfect. God's power will still be on display.
I can let go of stuff. I can give stuff over. I can even experience death in myself, because I believe in the God who raises people from the dead.
If this moment, this journey feels like death, that's not just okay. That's normal for the Christian, because that's what Jesus did. He died knowing that a resurrection was coming.
Which means for us as believers, we know that sometimes following Jesus will feel like death. When we think "this feels like death," we know what comes after death in the Christian story. It's resurrection. Therefore, we can go into death.
As we considered last week, Jesus did it for the joy set before Him. He endured the cross. We can endure whatever's in front of us for the joy that we anticipate coming on the other side by faith. We know that the Lord will provide. The Lord will resurrect. The Lord will work His wisdom and wonder in our lives.
If God Did Not Spare His Only Son
Romans 8:31 takes this same phrase and turns it around. God says to Abraham, "Now that I know that you didn't even spare your only son, now I know you fear me."
Paul takes that phrase and says, "If God didn't spare his only son, what does that tell you about him?"
If we can draw some conclusions about Abraham based on what he did, what can we learn about God? If God did not spare His only Son, how will He not now, along with Him, give us all good things?
We can anticipate all kinds of blessings in the life of faith, because we know that God has given up His Son.
At Redemption
At Redemption, we worship and respond to God's remarkable wisdom in providing for us. We come before the God who did not spare His only Son for us. We remember that and respond with faith.
If we're in a season of testing, we can say with Job, "I don't know what God's doing, but I know that when I come out of this, God will have produced gold in me somehow." We respond in faith, trusting in our hearts that the Lord will provide.
