Abram has received an incredible promise from God, that he would be the father of a great nation that will be a blessing to the whole world. God has promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God has even gone so far as to sign the covenant he’s made with Abram.
There’s only one problem. Abram has no children. He’s now in his 80s, his wife Sarai is in her 70s, and she’s never been able to have children. Abram is a man of great faith, but he’s not perfect. He and Sarai decide to do what a lot of us have done at some point — they decide to help God keep his promise.
Sarai figures that since God has promised children to Abram, he can have these children through her servant, Hagar. So Sarai brings this idea up to Abram. Abram doesn’t seem to argue much about this, and he sleeps with Hagar. Sure enough, Hagar gets pregnant and has a son named Ishmael. But this wasn’t God’s plan.
How many times have we decided to help God along? Especially in those times when God is telling us to wait, there’s a temptation to nudge things along just a little. After all, if God wants us to have something, it should be okay for us to help ourselves to it as soon as possible, right? But that is not right, because God’s timing and plans are perfect. While he doesn’t expect us to sit around and wait for blessings to drop into our laps, he also calls us to trust him to bring about the blessings in his timing and in his way without us doing something to bring them about in the wrong way.
Several years later, when Abram is 99 years old, God comes to him again and emphasizes his covenant with him. God changes his name from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of a multitude”), probably to associate his new name with God’s promise that through him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). God changes Sarai’s name to Sarah, both of which mean “princess.”
Then in Genesis 17:16, God promises Abraham that he will have a son through Sarah. Remember, Abraham is 99 and Sarah is 89! But God tells Abraham that he and Sarah will have a son, and this son, Isaac, not Ishmael, is the son through whom the covenant will continue. God says that he will establish his covenant with Isaac and his offspring.
Sometime after this, three visitors show up at Abraham’s tent. It’s God and two angels, and God promises that in about a year Sarah will be holding a baby of her own. Sarah overhears these words and laughs. It’s just unbelievable that they could ever have a child.
But they do have a child. As God says in Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” And the answer to that, of course, is no. Baby Isaac is born to parents that are around 100 and 90 years old. What a miracle! As someone once said, Abraham and Sarah are the only folks in the grocery store buying Pampers and Depends at the same time.
God has kept his promise.
But he is not done growing Abraham’s faith. In chapter 22, we see the greatest challenge to the faith of Abraham. God isn’t trying to make Abraham fall. He’s simply making Abraham’s faith even stronger.
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” (Genesis 22:1-2)
A lot of you have read those verses many times, but don’t let that keep you from being stunned by them.
God doesn’t intend for Abraham to kill Isaac, but Abraham doesn’t know this. Here’s what Abraham does know. He knows that he loves his son with all his heart. He knows that God loves him and can be trusted. He knows that God, the great promise keeper, has promised that Abraham will have descendants through Isaac. Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham trusted that God would raise Isaac from the dead if that’s what it took for God to keep his promise.
Abraham obeys. He begins a 3-day journey, and when sees the spot in the distance, he tells his servants to wait there while he and Isaac go on, and tells them, “we’ll be back.” I’m not sure how Abraham is doing any of this, but his faith is so strong that he believes that both he and his son will return to the servants.
So Abraham and Isaac move on. Notice that Abraham is carrying the fire and the knife. Just out of instinct, he’s carrying the dangerous items to protect his son. When they arrive at the right spot, Abraham builds an altar, ties up Isaac’s legs and arms, picks up his son, holding the same body he once held on the day his baby was born, and places Isaac on the altar.
As he prepares to follow God in perfect faith and obedience, believing that somehow God will work this out, even if it meant bringing Isaac back to life, he hears a voice from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!”
Just like he says in verse 1, Abraham responds with, “Here I am.” God tells Abraham not to harm his son. He says, “I know that you fear me, you honor me, you trust me.” God didn’t learn about Abraham’s faith in this incident; he’s all-knowing. But Abraham learned a lot about his own faith. He grew in his ability to trust God. He learned that he could place everything in God’s hands.
The purpose of any testing you experience is always meant to strengthen your character and grow your faith. Trials are opportunities for your trust in God to deepen and for your commitment to obedience to strengthen.
As we ponder in horror about how Abraham must have felt as he held that knife, and as we think about how Isaac must have felt as his father held the knife over him, and as we breathe a sigh of relief that God stopped Abraham from killing his son, keep something in mind.
God did not stop. He sacrificed his son. For you.
If Jesus had lived, you would be dead spiritually. But God sacrificed his only Son so that you and I can live.