Reading the entire bible looking for Jesus. Part 1
The subject of Study — Isaac and Abraham
Background — God’s Tests to Sacrifice Love
Why does The Lord test us?
1. To reveal our true beliefs and the contents of our hearts.
Trials bring out what we genuinely believe, exposing our innermost convictions. For example, if a trial leads someone to forsake their faith, it may indicate that their faith was not genuine from the start. This reveals God’s kindness in showing us the illusions we hold about ourselves that lack a basis in reality. (See Romans 1, which delves into humanity’s misguided perceptions of wisdom.)
2. To refine and strengthen our faith.
As mentioned in 1 Peter 1:6–7, testing serves to purify and enhance our faith. It’s a process akin to refining precious metals, making our trust in God more resilient and fruitful in producing righteousness.
The Lord knows how to educate you to such a point that you may endure in years to come wyou may not endure today.
What is faith?
- Faith is a profound conviction about unseen realities that motivates one to take action based on their beliefs.
Faith is completely irrational.
5. He 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.”
6. Abraham 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,
somehow Abraham knew that after he sacrificed his son he would come back with him. He somehow believes in resurrection. Why?
19. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
Abraham remembered what God had done in the past. This brings us to why we find it hard to trust God to do what he says he’s done…
It is a memory issue — how quickly we forget how faithful and good God has been. Take a look at these verses:
2. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
2. Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits —
9. Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
These calls to remember show you the tendency to forget what the lord has done.
Who affirms our faith?
This test solidifies Abraham's loyalty to God Over and above loyalty to his son.
"Take your son, your only son who you love__"
To love God's gifts is good but how easy it is to make these gifts God, how easy it is for our loyalty to shift away from God.
Giving up what you love to the God who deserves it is a test.
All this time God is refining Abraham's faith. At the moment of sacrifice, God reveals the faith and loyalty of Abraham to him affirming that it is real. God says to Abraham, I now know that you fear God
How good it is when the Lord affirms your faith and not people or ourselves.
How catastrophic it is when we seek and are content with people to affirm our faith.
21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23. Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
All these deeds seem good justifications for our faith in God to ourselves and other people but to The Lord, it is all disgusting…
6. All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind, our sins sweep us away.
Where is Jesus in this story?
13. 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.
14. 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.”
There is a problem with all of this
4. because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Since Abraham and Isaac were born after Adam and Eve, they were born in sin and both deserved to die one way or another.
This ram was though provided to be a sacrifice instead of Isaac and for Isaac was not a sufficient one. Rather a shallow pointer to a sufficient sacrifice where Jehovah Jireh does not provide a ram rather…
16. “… he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus was born by miracle just like Isaac and endured being tested over and over just like Abraham but the thing that sets him apart from all those in history who were tested before was that he passed all the tests.
The Lord publicly affirmed the faith of Jesus during his baptism…
17. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Just like Isaac this son was made to carry his own wood which he would be sacrificed on.
The difference is this sacrifice of a Son sacrifice is sufficient to save your life.
Reference: Abraham & Issac: The test and the sacrifice of love (Glory Conference)
