The Ultimate Test
Genesis 22:1-24
Message #13
Abraham’s life of faith was launched in UR when God called him to go to a land that he would show him. (Genesis 12) And God promised then he would make him into a great nation and all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. And when Abraham got to Canaan, God promised that land to Abraham’s offspring, to his descendants. And God promised Abraham that his offspring (Genesis 13) would number like the dust of the earth, and his descendants would number as the stars in the heavens. And Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Then God performed a unilateral covenant with Abraham guaranteeing these promises to him.
And then there was the Ishmael fiasco, and God promised again (Genesis 17) that the son of this promise would come from Abraham and Sarah (with no help from them). And finally (after twenty-five long years), last week (Genesis 21), Isaac, the heir of the promise, was born.
But it’s been a shaky twenty-five years with some peaks and plenty of faith valleys. But through it all, God was growing and growing Abraham’s faith. And now that Isaac is born, Abraham believes the promise of God more than ever. And that is precisely when God brings “the ultimate test.” Everything up until now had been in preparation for this “ultimate test of Abraham’s faith.”
Genesis 22:1 (NLT)
1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith.
It seems like God has been testing Abraham since day one. But now we read after all these things, now God tests Abraham.
Guys, here’s the truth about our faith. And the more we grow in our faith, the greater God will challenge us to grow in our faith. The arrival part is face-to-face with Jesus. Until then, wherever you’re at in your faith walk, God is going to challenge you to walk in greater faith.
And the ultimate test of our faith is often when God calls us to trust him in a situation that seems impossible or unbearable (which is exactly what the Lord does with Abraham today).
And it is really good that the Holy Spirit let us know that this is a test right up front because if we didn’t know that this was the ultimate test of faith for Abraham, it might make us seriously question God. So, God tells us upfront this is a test. God is going to test Abraham’s faith to the absolute limit. It is a picture of where God brings you for your ultimate test of faith and mine.
So, it’s good we know it’s a test. But Abraham did not know it was a test!
Genesis 22:1–2 (NLT)
1 Some time later (after these things), God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
WHOA! Hold on, God! What did you say? What did you just ask me to do? Isaac has been the living proof of God’s promise for at least fifteen-plus years (some say maybe thirty or thirty-three – matching the age of Jesus). Now God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son whom you love so much, and sacrifice him. In the Hebrew, God uses just three stern commands: take – go – sacrifice.
We’ve never seen a burnt offering, but Abraham had seen plenty. First, you build an altar of wood. Then, you cut the throat of the sacrifice. Then, you burn the sacrifice until it is completely consumed. This is what Abraham would’ve understood when he heard this command from God, and this was not inconceivable to Abraham. Human sacrifice occurred in UR (pagan culture), so it was not “out of the question” from his “worldview.” In other words, Abraham took this command from God deadly serious.
And suddenly, Abraham is at a truly life-changing crossroads. Was Abraham willing to trust God even if it looked like God was not going to keep his promise? Even if it looked like God himself was going to take away his own promise?
How about us? Are we willing to trust God even if it looks like God is letting us down? Even if it looks like God himself is taking away his promise? The key phrase in those questions is “even if it looks like…”
When it looks like God’s promise is going to die right before our eyes, will we put our faith in what we think we see, or will we put our faith in God alone? Do we put our faith in what we see, and what we think, and what we feel, or do we put our faith in who God is and what God has said?
See, it’s not “do you have faith,” it’s “where is your faith.” This is what Jesus said to the Disciples when he was asleep in the boat, and the storm came up, and the Disciples were freaking out, and they woke him up. And Jesus calms the seas. And when he’s done, he says, “Where is your faith?” Meaning, is your faith in the waves of the ocean, or is your faith in me? It’s not whether you have faith; it’s where it is. And if your faith is in what you think, and what you see, and how you feel, we call that “emotional faith.” If your faith is in who God is and what God says, we call that “volitional faith.” It’s faith of the will. I choose to have faith in God no matter what I see.
This ultimate test of Abraham’s faith is like none we could imagine. The only thing it can be compared to is God sacrificing his only Son for the sin of the world. And to me, as shocking as this command was, Abraham’s obedience is even more shocking.
Genesis 22:3 (NLT)
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about.
Abraham is headed with Isaac to the place called Mt. Moriah. In 2 Chronicles, Mt. Moriah will be the mount that King David would purchase in order to build God a temple, and Mt. Moriah is where David’s son Solomon would build that temple (and where the temple mount still stands today). And the highest place on Mt. Moriah is the place we know as Golgotha. God is taking Abraham to the same place where God himself would offer his only Son as a sacrifice for our sin.
Genesis 22:4–5 (NLT)
4 On the third day of their journey (for three days Abraham experienced his only son – being “as good as dead”), Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
we will come right back
THIS is the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith. Abraham did not know or understand the details. But Abraham knew this one thing – God’s promise would absolutely come to pass. Isaac was the son of the promise, and Abraham knew without a doubt that God would keep that promise, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead.
God will keep his promise – even if it means raising the promise from the dead. Because you only think that promise is dead. It’s not. God is faithful; he will keep his promise.
Our faith in God must rest on his unchangeable promises, not on our current circumstances or our own understanding. Not what we think, see, or feel. None of that. Our faith has to rest in who our God is and what he has said.
Warren Weirsbe says: Abraham believed God.
He believed God when he did not know where God was taking him
He believed God when he did not know when God would fulfill the promise
He believed God when he did not know how God would fulfill the promise
And so – Abraham believed God when he did not know why he was being called to sacrifice Isaac.
See, those little steps of faith always lead to greater steps of faith. And the graciousness of God is that if we balk at one step, he’ll just keep bringing us around to it until we make that step.
Abraham did believe he was about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. But Abraham was acting on his greater belief in God and in God’s promise.
Hebrews 11:17–19 (NLT)
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac,
18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. (because he considered him dead for those three days)
Abraham believed God would bring his promise to pass, even if it meant having to raise Isaac from the dead.
Abraham believed God. He didn’t understand God, but he believed him. And he had reached a point in his faith walk with God where making sense didn’t have to be a part of it. It didn’t have to make sense. He didn’t have to agree. He didn’t have to see the end from the beginning. All he had to do was trust and obey.
And so, now, in the final steps. It was just Abraham (as the Father) and Isaac (as the Son) climbing Mt. Moriah together to the place that would one day be called Calvary.
Genesis 22:6 (NLT)
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife (the tools of judgment). As the two of them walked on together,
Isaac carrying the wood on his back is a clear picture of Jesus carrying the cross on his back, and his father was climbing that long hill with Isaac, just as God would one day climb that hill with Jesus.
This path to the ultimate test was getting very, very real. And as they walked, we read the following in Genesis 22, verses 7-8 (switching to the ESV to make just one sentence clear).
Genesis 22:7–8 (ESV)
7 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?”
8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son
In the Hebrew, it is literally – God provide himself a lamb
Abraham had tremendous faith that, one way or another, God would provide for this sacrifice.
R. Kent Hughes says,
Abraham’s “God will provide for himself” is at the same time a declaration of trust, an expression of hope, and a prophecy of the future.
Abraham’s faith is growing every step up Mt. Moriah as he faced the ultimate test of his faith. And maybe just reading the text is challenging our own faith as we walk each step up that mountain with Abraham and Isaac.
And finally, they arrive, and it is time for Abraham’s faith to become action.
Genesis 22:9 (NLT)
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
A one-hundred-year-old father with his young son, his only son, both trusting God and one another completely. Isaac had to be fully cooperating here, just as Jesus had to fully cooperate with the Father on Calvary.
Isaiah 53:7 (NLT)
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Maybe Abraham was telling Isaac of the absolute guarantee of God’s promises. Maybe Abraham was assuring his son that God would bring him through this, just as God the Father promised his Son, Jesus, that he would bring him through the unbearable anguish of the Cross.
But what we know for sure is there is phenomenal faith in action right here.
James 2:21–22 (NLT)
21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.
Abraham’s faith was made complete by his actions, as we see in the next verses.
Genesis 22:10 (NLT)
10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.
And then, the Hebrew is clear – “at the very last moment”
Genesis 22:11–12 (NLT)
11 At that moment (at the very LAST Moment) the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
And instantly, Abraham passes the ultimate test of his faith.
And now, the Lord would step in and provide a substitutionary sacrifice just as he would provide himself AS a substitutionary sacrifice almost 2,000 years later.
Genesis 22:13 (NLT)
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
That must have been a celebration sacrifice! Abraham (and Isaac) had passed the ultimate test of faith, and the Lord became their provision. They now knew the Lord in a way they could not have known him any other way.
Genesis 22:14 (NLT)
14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
We say Jehovah Jireh because we cannot pronounce these Hebrew words correctly. But, this is one of the most incredible names of God, and what an incredible way for the Lord to reveal himself as “I AM Provides.” Or “I AM Provision.” “God Exists As Our Provision.” And now, Abraham knew the Lord as “MY God who provides.”
He will never have to learn again that God exists as his provision. And when you face your ultimate test of faith, and you pass it, you will never doubt God again because of the intensity of that moment when God asks you to step out in utter, complete faith. And then, God provides. That’s what changes our relationship with the Lord.
And Abraham’s response to this ultimate test of his faith brings incredible assurance from God.
Genesis 22:15–18 (NLT)
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven.
16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that
17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.
18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
These are all previous promises, but now God swears an oath BY his own name that every one of them would come to pass.
In the end, the greatest assurance of God’s blessing comes through Abraham’s faithful obedience as he faces this ultimate test of his faith. Guys, we can count on every one of God’s promises. We can rest in them – they are all YES and AMEN in Christ. They are guaranteed and sure because they are based on God’s character. And they are received by us (the real word is appropriated) through our faith that shows in our actions. But God’s part is guaranteed.
Our job is to grow in our faith when we are tested. Our job is to be willing to have our faith tested so that our faith can grow. Thankfully, God usually grows our faith in smaller tests than this one, but he will grow it through testing. So, don’t run away from it.
Genesis 22:19 (NLT)
19 Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.
And where Abraham truly becomes the Father of the Faith.
Do you have an Isaac today? Is there a promise that you have received from God that you think might be about to die? Have you received a promise from God that you think or feel that God might not be keeping his promise? Can you today choose by faith to set aside what you think or feel, or even see?
And can you commit today to put your full and complete faith in God’s promise? Can you tell God today, by faith, I believe your promise will come to pass even if you have to raise it from the dead?
And then there was the Ishmael fiasco, and God promised again (Genesis 17) that the son of this promise would come from Abraham and Sarah (with no help from them). And finally (after twenty-five long years), last week (Genesis 21), Isaac, the heir of the promise, was born.
But it’s been a shaky twenty-five years with some peaks and plenty of faith valleys. But through it all, God was growing and growing Abraham’s faith. And now that Isaac is born, Abraham believes the promise of God more than ever. And that is precisely when God brings “the ultimate test.” Everything up until now had been in preparation for this “ultimate test of Abraham’s faith.”
Genesis 22:1 (NLT)
1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith.
It seems like God has been testing Abraham since day one. But now we read after all these things, now God tests Abraham.
Guys, here’s the truth about our faith. And the more we grow in our faith, the greater God will challenge us to grow in our faith. The arrival part is face-to-face with Jesus. Until then, wherever you’re at in your faith walk, God is going to challenge you to walk in greater faith.
And the ultimate test of our faith is often when God calls us to trust him in a situation that seems impossible or unbearable (which is exactly what the Lord does with Abraham today).
And it is really good that the Holy Spirit let us know that this is a test right up front because if we didn’t know that this was the ultimate test of faith for Abraham, it might make us seriously question God. So, God tells us upfront this is a test. God is going to test Abraham’s faith to the absolute limit. It is a picture of where God brings you for your ultimate test of faith and mine.
So, it’s good we know it’s a test. But Abraham did not know it was a test!
Genesis 22:1–2 (NLT)
1 Some time later (after these things), God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
WHOA! Hold on, God! What did you say? What did you just ask me to do? Isaac has been the living proof of God’s promise for at least fifteen-plus years (some say maybe thirty or thirty-three – matching the age of Jesus). Now God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son whom you love so much, and sacrifice him. In the Hebrew, God uses just three stern commands: take – go – sacrifice.
We’ve never seen a burnt offering, but Abraham had seen plenty. First, you build an altar of wood. Then, you cut the throat of the sacrifice. Then, you burn the sacrifice until it is completely consumed. This is what Abraham would’ve understood when he heard this command from God, and this was not inconceivable to Abraham. Human sacrifice occurred in UR (pagan culture), so it was not “out of the question” from his “worldview.” In other words, Abraham took this command from God deadly serious.
And suddenly, Abraham is at a truly life-changing crossroads. Was Abraham willing to trust God even if it looked like God was not going to keep his promise? Even if it looked like God himself was going to take away his own promise?
How about us? Are we willing to trust God even if it looks like God is letting us down? Even if it looks like God himself is taking away his promise? The key phrase in those questions is “even if it looks like…”
When it looks like God’s promise is going to die right before our eyes, will we put our faith in what we think we see, or will we put our faith in God alone? Do we put our faith in what we see, and what we think, and what we feel, or do we put our faith in who God is and what God has said?
See, it’s not “do you have faith,” it’s “where is your faith.” This is what Jesus said to the Disciples when he was asleep in the boat, and the storm came up, and the Disciples were freaking out, and they woke him up. And Jesus calms the seas. And when he’s done, he says, “Where is your faith?” Meaning, is your faith in the waves of the ocean, or is your faith in me? It’s not whether you have faith; it’s where it is. And if your faith is in what you think, and what you see, and how you feel, we call that “emotional faith.” If your faith is in who God is and what God says, we call that “volitional faith.” It’s faith of the will. I choose to have faith in God no matter what I see.
This ultimate test of Abraham’s faith is like none we could imagine. The only thing it can be compared to is God sacrificing his only Son for the sin of the world. And to me, as shocking as this command was, Abraham’s obedience is even more shocking.
Genesis 22:3 (NLT)
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about.
Abraham is headed with Isaac to the place called Mt. Moriah. In 2 Chronicles, Mt. Moriah will be the mount that King David would purchase in order to build God a temple, and Mt. Moriah is where David’s son Solomon would build that temple (and where the temple mount still stands today). And the highest place on Mt. Moriah is the place we know as Golgotha. God is taking Abraham to the same place where God himself would offer his only Son as a sacrifice for our sin.
Genesis 22:4–5 (NLT)
4 On the third day of their journey (for three days Abraham experienced his only son – being “as good as dead”), Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
we will come right back
THIS is the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith. Abraham did not know or understand the details. But Abraham knew this one thing – God’s promise would absolutely come to pass. Isaac was the son of the promise, and Abraham knew without a doubt that God would keep that promise, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead.
God will keep his promise – even if it means raising the promise from the dead. Because you only think that promise is dead. It’s not. God is faithful; he will keep his promise.
Our faith in God must rest on his unchangeable promises, not on our current circumstances or our own understanding. Not what we think, see, or feel. None of that. Our faith has to rest in who our God is and what he has said.
Warren Weirsbe says: Abraham believed God.
He believed God when he did not know where God was taking him
He believed God when he did not know when God would fulfill the promise
He believed God when he did not know how God would fulfill the promise
And so – Abraham believed God when he did not know why he was being called to sacrifice Isaac.
See, those little steps of faith always lead to greater steps of faith. And the graciousness of God is that if we balk at one step, he’ll just keep bringing us around to it until we make that step.
Abraham did believe he was about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. But Abraham was acting on his greater belief in God and in God’s promise.
Hebrews 11:17–19 (NLT)
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac,
18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.”
19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. (because he considered him dead for those three days)
Abraham believed God would bring his promise to pass, even if it meant having to raise Isaac from the dead.
Abraham believed God. He didn’t understand God, but he believed him. And he had reached a point in his faith walk with God where making sense didn’t have to be a part of it. It didn’t have to make sense. He didn’t have to agree. He didn’t have to see the end from the beginning. All he had to do was trust and obey.
And so, now, in the final steps. It was just Abraham (as the Father) and Isaac (as the Son) climbing Mt. Moriah together to the place that would one day be called Calvary.
Genesis 22:6 (NLT)
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife (the tools of judgment). As the two of them walked on together,
Isaac carrying the wood on his back is a clear picture of Jesus carrying the cross on his back, and his father was climbing that long hill with Isaac, just as God would one day climb that hill with Jesus.
This path to the ultimate test was getting very, very real. And as they walked, we read the following in Genesis 22, verses 7-8 (switching to the ESV to make just one sentence clear).
Genesis 22:7–8 (ESV)
7 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?”
8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son
In the Hebrew, it is literally – God provide himself a lamb
Abraham had tremendous faith that, one way or another, God would provide for this sacrifice.
R. Kent Hughes says,
Abraham’s “God will provide for himself” is at the same time a declaration of trust, an expression of hope, and a prophecy of the future.
Abraham’s faith is growing every step up Mt. Moriah as he faced the ultimate test of his faith. And maybe just reading the text is challenging our own faith as we walk each step up that mountain with Abraham and Isaac.
And finally, they arrive, and it is time for Abraham’s faith to become action.
Genesis 22:9 (NLT)
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
A one-hundred-year-old father with his young son, his only son, both trusting God and one another completely. Isaac had to be fully cooperating here, just as Jesus had to fully cooperate with the Father on Calvary.
Isaiah 53:7 (NLT)
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Maybe Abraham was telling Isaac of the absolute guarantee of God’s promises. Maybe Abraham was assuring his son that God would bring him through this, just as God the Father promised his Son, Jesus, that he would bring him through the unbearable anguish of the Cross.
But what we know for sure is there is phenomenal faith in action right here.
James 2:21–22 (NLT)
21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.
Abraham’s faith was made complete by his actions, as we see in the next verses.
Genesis 22:10 (NLT)
10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.
And then, the Hebrew is clear – “at the very last moment”
Genesis 22:11–12 (NLT)
11 At that moment (at the very LAST Moment) the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
And instantly, Abraham passes the ultimate test of his faith.
And now, the Lord would step in and provide a substitutionary sacrifice just as he would provide himself AS a substitutionary sacrifice almost 2,000 years later.
Genesis 22:13 (NLT)
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
That must have been a celebration sacrifice! Abraham (and Isaac) had passed the ultimate test of faith, and the Lord became their provision. They now knew the Lord in a way they could not have known him any other way.
Genesis 22:14 (NLT)
14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
We say Jehovah Jireh because we cannot pronounce these Hebrew words correctly. But, this is one of the most incredible names of God, and what an incredible way for the Lord to reveal himself as “I AM Provides.” Or “I AM Provision.” “God Exists As Our Provision.” And now, Abraham knew the Lord as “MY God who provides.”
He will never have to learn again that God exists as his provision. And when you face your ultimate test of faith, and you pass it, you will never doubt God again because of the intensity of that moment when God asks you to step out in utter, complete faith. And then, God provides. That’s what changes our relationship with the Lord.
And Abraham’s response to this ultimate test of his faith brings incredible assurance from God.
Genesis 22:15–18 (NLT)
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven.
16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that
17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.
18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
These are all previous promises, but now God swears an oath BY his own name that every one of them would come to pass.
In the end, the greatest assurance of God’s blessing comes through Abraham’s faithful obedience as he faces this ultimate test of his faith. Guys, we can count on every one of God’s promises. We can rest in them – they are all YES and AMEN in Christ. They are guaranteed and sure because they are based on God’s character. And they are received by us (the real word is appropriated) through our faith that shows in our actions. But God’s part is guaranteed.
Our job is to grow in our faith when we are tested. Our job is to be willing to have our faith tested so that our faith can grow. Thankfully, God usually grows our faith in smaller tests than this one, but he will grow it through testing. So, don’t run away from it.
Genesis 22:19 (NLT)
19 Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.
And where Abraham truly becomes the Father of the Faith.
Do you have an Isaac today? Is there a promise that you have received from God that you think might be about to die? Have you received a promise from God that you think or feel that God might not be keeping his promise? Can you today choose by faith to set aside what you think or feel, or even see?
And can you commit today to put your full and complete faith in God’s promise? Can you tell God today, by faith, I believe your promise will come to pass even if you have to raise it from the dead?