Sunday's Message - The Patriarchs: Encountering the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (The Lord Tests Abraham)

We're going to spend the summer of 2023 with the Patriarchs. During eleven worship services, beginning on Father's Day, we'll use passages from the book of Genesis to look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, focusing on how the Lord was consistently and actively involved in their lives. And by the end of the summer, we should have a better understanding of the one whom they followed and on how that same God can lead us. During this series, we'll look at the stories and passages below:

• June 18 - The Lord Chooses Abram (Genesis 12:1-9)
• June 25 - The Lord Promises Abraham a Son (Genesis 18:1-15)
• July 2 - Abraham Sends Hagar and Ishmael Away (Genesis 21:8-21)
• July 9 - The Lord Tests Abraham (Genesis 22:1-14)
• July 16 - Abrahams Finds Isaac a Wife (Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49)
• July 23 - Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:19-34)
• July 30 - Jacob's Dream at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-19a)
• August 6 - Jacob with Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29:15-28)
• August 13 - Jacob Becomes Israel (Genesis 32:22-31)
• August 20 - Joseph and His Brothers (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28)
• August 27 - Joseph Tells His Brothers Who He Is (Genesis 45:1-15)

On Sunday, the message focused on what we can learn from the Lord testing Abraham, Genesis 22:1-14. A recording and copy of the sermon are below. You can stream the service by going to the Sligo Presbyterian Church YouTube Channel at 10:00 a.m.

Yesterday, we had a little bit of excitement around the Rudiger house. And let me tell you what it was and be prepared to be shocked! Now, as some of y’all may know, I write my sermon on Saturday. Well, yesterday, I got to the office somewhere around 9:00, and I was kind of dinking around before I got down to writing, when the church phone rang.  I picked it up, and it was Debbie. And after taking a breath so deep that I could almost feel it, she said, “You didn’t get my text, did you?” Now call it a hunch, but right then I had the feeling that whatever she needed to tell me wasn’t going to be good, and so I kind of braced myself. There was a dramatic pause. And then she took another deep breath and said, “There’s a bat in the house.” Of course, before she could say anything else, I said, “I’m on my way home.” You see, even though I’m a year older than I was a couple of weeks ago and evidently because of that, I now have a hard time remembering the days of the week, well, I haven’t completely lost it yet; therefore, I knew I’d better stop the dinking I was doing, and get my sorry self home as fast as possible. In other words, I knew what she wanted and I responded. 

And I’ll tell you, that’s sort of what we’re going to be talking about this morning. You see, even though the story we’re looking at from Genesis has absolutely nothing to do with bats, it does involve the patriarch Abraham responding to a command given to him by God. Of course, this is the fourth story we’ve looked at involving Abraham. I mean, we’ve already talked about how he was chosen by God and how God promised that he and Sarah were going to have a son and how, for this son Isaac to inherit everything he’d been promised, he had to send away Hagar and Ishmael. Now this we’ve already done. And as y’all remember, for each one, we took what happened in the story and applied it to ourselves. 

And this morning, well, we’re going to look at the last Abraham story in our series, this one dealing with how Abraham was tested when God told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. You see, we’re going to look at that story by focusing on three questions: what did God command and how did Abraham respond and what did God provide in the end. And then, with that done, we’ll apply those same questions to ourselves. In other words, we’re going to talk about what God commands us to do and how we might respond and what God provides to us so that we can do what he’s commanded us to do. And I hope, by the end of the message, we’ll have a better idea about how, in response to God’s command to us, we might obey.

And so with that in mind, let’s take a look at this story from Genesis 22 and answer the first question: What did God command? In other words, what exactly did God want Abraham to do? And even though I’ve already given you a spoiler alert, this is what it says in Genesis:

Some years later God decided to test Abraham, so he spoke to him.

Abraham answered, “Here I am, Lord.”

The Lord said, “Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar.” [Genesis 22:1-2, CEV]

Now that’s what is says. God commanded Abraham, you know, the one who’d been promised a son and who was told to send Ishmael away because the promise was going to rest on Isaac, God commanded Abraham to take Isaac to a mountain and to kill him and to burn his body on an altar as a human sacrifice. Now that was exactly what God commanded Abraham to do. And personally, this command makes me incredibly uncomfortable. I mean, even if it’s all a “test,” this was still a pretty horrible thing for a father to be told to do to his son, isn’t it; especially by God! In fact, it’s so horrendous that I believe it can completely distract us from anything else. And I’ll tell you, that’s why I think it’s really important that we read it as I believe it was written, as a story with a lesson and not a historical event. I mean, if we don’t, we might miss the forest because of this huge, horrible tree. And be prepared, I believe we’ll need to do the same kind of thing when we consider what Abraham chooses to do. You see, I think this was written to be read as a story, but that’s just my opinion. But be-that-as-it-may, Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, that’s what God commanded.

And you know, that makes our second question extremely important: How did Abraham respond? I mean, how did Abraham respond to the one who had called him and made promises to him, the one he’d obeyed and trusted? How did Abraham respond to a command that was not only terrible, but that brought into question everything he believed? Well, this is what it says in Genesis:

So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and set out with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go.

Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place. He told his servants, “Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back.”

Abraham put the wood on Isaac’s shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along, Isaac said, “Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”

“My son,” Abraham answered, “God will provide the lamb.”

The two of them walked on, and when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son. [Genesis 22:3-10, CEV]

Now that’s what it says. God commanded and Abraham responded by doing exactly what God told him to do. You see, he listened to what God said. And he decided to chop the wood and saddle the donkey and to go with his son to the mountain. And then he took action. And based on what was written, I don’t think there can be any doubt that Abraham was ready to obey God and sacrifice Isaac. You see, that’s exactly how Abraham responded.

But of course, that’s not the end of the story; there’s a little bit more. Which leaves us with our third question: What did God provide? Just listen:

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, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 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. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide,” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” [Genesis 22:11-14, CEV]

You see, at the nick of time, God provided a way for Abraham to do what he was commanded to do without actually killing his son. He could offer the ram in the thicket as a sacrifice to God, something that Abraham did. Now that’s exactly what God provided. And with that, this story was over.

But you know, I don’t think it should be over for us, and I’ll tell you why. I think we’re faced with the exact same questions as we apply this story to ourselves. For example, what does God command? I mean, what God order does God expect us to obey? In other words, what does God want us to do right here and right now? You see just like it was for Abraham, I think that’s also our question. And you know, I find it amazing that the answer is the exact same regardless of whether we’re looking in the Old Testament or in the New Testament or listening to the words of Jesus Christ himself. I mean, just hear what it says in Leviticus:

Don’t hold grudges. On the other hand, it’s wrong not to correct someone who needs correcting. Don’t be angry or try to take revenge. I am the Lord, and I command you to love others as much as you love yourself.” [Leviticus 19:17-18, CEV]

And this is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans:

Let love be your only debt! If you love others, you have done all that the Law demands. In the Law there are many commands, such as, “Be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not want what belongs to others.” But all of these are summed up in the command that says, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” No one who loves others will harm them. So love is all that the Law demands. [Romans 13:8-10, CEV]

And according to Jesus Christ himself: 

I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am. Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are my friends, if you obey me. Servants don’t know what their master is doing, and so I don’t speak to you as my servants. I speak to you as my friends, and I have told you everything my Father has told me.

You did not choose me. I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then my Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. So I command you to love each other. [John 15:11-17, CEV]

I’ll tell you, it doesn’t matter where we go in the Bible, what God wants us to do is the same, isn’t it? And it sure as heck doesn’t involve sacrificing sons or anything else for that matter. God has told us to love one another, to love our neighbors as ourselves. That’s what God commands.

And since we know this, the next question we saw in the story of Abraham is really important for us to answer too: How can we respond? How can we respond to the command we’ve been given? And how can we respond, knowing that when God told us to love others, well, maybe that’s our test? Now this is something I think we need to ask ourselves. But of course, that leads to a whole bunch of other questions, doesn’t it?  For example, are we going to be like Abraham and listen to God, something that, again, Jesus himself told us to do when he said, 

Everything I have told you is true, and you still refuse to have faith in me. Can any of you accuse me of sin? If you cannot, why won’t you have faith in me? After all, I am telling you the truth. Anyone who belongs to God will listen to his message. But you refuse to listen, because you don’t belong to God. [John 8:45-47, CEV]

Man, we have to listen, don’t we? And like Abraham, are we going to decide, you know, are we going to decide that loving others is something we really need to do, something that James challenged his readers to do when he wrote this:

Obey God’s message! Don’t fool yourselves by just listening to it. If you hear the message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget. [James 1:22-25, CEV]

You see, along with listening, we have to decide that we’re going to obey. But you know, the rubber hits the road with this: are we actually going to do it? I mean, we can listen to God until the cows come home and we can decide to do all kinds of things that sound great but that we never get around to doing, but are we actually going to take some kind action? Good night nurse, are we going to love our neighbors as ourselves? And are we going to love each other as we’ve been loved? Man, those are some really important questions, because if we are, we need to stop talking about love so that we can start actually showing it, something that James understood when he wrote this:

My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don’t do anything to show you really do have faith? Can this kind of faith save you? If you know someone who doesn’t have any clothes or food, you shouldn’t just say, “I hope all goes well for you. I hope you will be warm and have plenty to eat.” What good is it to say this, unless you do something to help? Faith that doesn’t lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead! [James 2:14-17, 20-23, CEV]

You see, since God has commanded that we show love to others, we can listen and we can decide and then we can actually do it. And that’s exactly how we can respond. 

And I’ll tell you, if this was all we had, I honestly think we could probably do it. But it isn’t all we have. I mean, it wasn’t for Abraham as he held the knife above his bound son on the altar, and I’ll tell you, it’s not for us as we try to obey God and to show love to folks we might not even like. And so, our third question: What does God provide us? Simply put, what does he offer so that we can do what he wants us to do? Well, I think he offers us a guide. In other words, he tells us exactly how to do it, you know, to love others as we’ve been loved. Just listen to what Paul wrote to the Romans:

Be sincere in your love for others. Hate everything that is evil and hold tight to everything that is good. Love each other as brothers and sisters and honor others more than you do yourself. Never give up. Eagerly follow the Holy Spirit and serve the Lord. Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying. Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home.

Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them. When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad. Be friendly with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you know more than others. Make friends with ordinary people. Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, and do your best to live at peace with everyone. [Romans 12:9-17, CEV]

You see, we know what God commands and we know how we can respond. But since I believe God wants us to succeed, man, he tells us exactly how to do it, and that’s what he provides. 

Now do you remember what we were talking about at the beginning of this message, you know, how there was a bat in our house. Well, as soon as I got home, it was really clear what Debbie wanted me to do. And even though I couldn’t find my tennis racket, I pretty much knew how to do it. You see, this wasn’t my first bat rodeo. Anyway, the bat was trapped in the upstairs bathroom. And so, with a toy rake in my hands, I went in. But I noticed, well, the bat was sort of hanging on the window screen which, as it turned out, provided me the chance to get rid of the little guy without killing him. And so, carefully, I went up to the window, and I closed it on the inside, trapping the bat between the glass and the screen. And then I opened the top sash, pulled up the screen from the outside and watched the bat fly away. Yesterday, for bat and boy, I think we were both winners.