The Ultimate Test –

Genesis 22
• The Incredible Adventure Begins
Sermon 1 of 16 – Genesis
12:1-9
• Famine in the Promised Land
Sermon 2 of 16 – Genesis
12:10-20
• Dancing With the Devil
Sermon 3 of 16 – Genesis 13
• Spiritual Warfare 101
Sermon 4 of 16 – Genesis 14 / Hebrews
7
• How to Overcome Fear
Sermon 5 of 16 – Genesis 15
• Doing the Right Thing in the Wrong Way
Sermon 6 of 16 –
Genesis 16
• God of the Impossible
Sermon 7 of 16 – Genesis 17
• When God Comes to Dinner
Sermon 8 of 16 – Genesis 18:1-
15
• A Few Good Men
Sermon 9 of 16 – Genesis 18:16-33
• From Sodom to Oak Park
Sermon 10 of 16 – Genesis 19
• Anatomy of a Backslider
Sermon 11 of 16 – Genesis 20
• God's Good vs. God's Best
Sermon 12 of 16 – Genesis 21:1-21
• How to Make Peace with Your Enemies
Sermon 13 of 16 –
Genesis 21:22-34
• Death of a Princess
Sermon 15 of 16 – Genesis 23
• Passing the Baton
Sermon 16 of 16 – Genesis 25
MORE RESOURCES LIKE THIS
• What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? – Romans
1:18-20
• The First Law: He's God and We're Not
• What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? – Romans
1:18-20
• The End of the Beginning – I Samuel 31 - II Samuel 1
• The Heart of A Champion – I Samuel 16:1-13
• In the Presence of My Enemies – I Samuel 23
• The Oldest Dad in the Nursery – Romans 4:18-25
• Father Abraham – Romans 4:1-8
• Righteousness is a Five Letter Word – Romans 4:9-12

Sermon 14 of 16 from the Adventures with

Abraham (Genesis 12-25) series

June 1996 – Several times in this sermon series I have

pointed out that a particular portion of Abraham’s story is
well-known to the people of the world. For instance,
many people know about Abraham and Sarah leaving Ur
of the Chaldees at the ages of 75 and 65 respectively, not
knowing where they were going. The story of the
miraculous birth of Isaac is likewise well-known as is the
tragic story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
This stories transcend religion and become a part of the
larger culture because they touch on universal themes of
adventure, birth, death, judgment, personal choice, and
sexual morality.
However, there is one story in the record of Abraham’s
life that towers above all the rest. Nothing else can be
compared with it. I speak of Abraham offering his son
Isaac on Mount Moriah. If you are parent, this story
cannot fail to grip your heart. F. B. Meyer wrote,

So long as men are in the world, they will turn to this

story with unwaning interest. This is only one scene in
history by which it is surpassed: that where the Great
Father gave His Isaac to a death from which there ws no
deliverance. (F. B. Meyer, Abraham: The Obedience of
Faith, p. 167, cited in Boice, pp. 217-218)

RELATED BOOK

The Incredible Journey of Faith

The life of faith is a journey with God that begins
the moment we
trust Christ. It is is about
learning to give up control of those
things
we never really controlled 
in the first place.
Get more details

Problems With This Story

In reading this story we face several problems. The first
and largest deals with the issue of God’s character. How
could a loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only Son?
Some critics have dismissed the story on the grounds that
it presents a grotesque caricature of the God of the Bible.
Perhaps the only adequate reply is the obvious one—that
we humans are hardly in a position to criticize Almighty
God on any grounds whatsoever.
There is a second problem that is more or less related to
the first. Because we all feel the problem of God asking
Abraham to sacrifice his, there is an unconscious
tendency to read this story backwards. That is, we start
with the fact that Abraham didn’t have to sacrifice Isaac
even though God asked him to, and we say, “See, God
never wanted Isaac to die in the first place.” Although
that statement is true on one level, we risk missing the
meaning of the text if we go too far down that road.
Because whatever else might be true, it is unquestionably
true that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him,
‘‘Abraham!”
Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, ‘‘Take your son,
your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region
of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one
of the mountains I will tell you about.” (vv. 1-2)
It would have been enough if God has simply said, “Take
your son.” But he said qualified that phrase three ways.
Your only son—not forgetting Ishmael who was also his
son, but meaning that Isaac was the promised son.
Isaac—the son for whom Abraham and Sarah had waited
for 25 long years. Whom you love—which might seem as
if God were mocking him, but these words were meant to
reassure him that God knew what he was asking. By
saying it way, Abraham would know that God understood
what it would cost him to obey.
Let us be clear about what God was asking at this point.
He wanted Abraham to travel with his son to Moriah
(which today is called Jerusalem) and build an altar of
stones on one of the mountains. He would then make a
platform of wood on the stones. Then Abraham was to
ask Isaac to lie down on the wood. Then he would take a
knife and slit Isaac’s throat in the same way that a
sacrificial lamb was slain. Finally, he would light the wood,
burning his son’s body as an offering to God.
This is what God told Abraham to do. At that point the
man of faith only has two options. Either you obey or you
don’t. If you stop to argue, that in itself is a form of
disobedience. If you try to talk God out of it, that too is
disobedience. If you offer an alternate plan, that is also
disobedience.

“We Will Come Back toYou”

God asked Abraham to put his own son to death. And
Abraham agreed to do it.

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his

donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son
Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt
offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in
the distance. 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.” (vv. 3-5)
Here we encounter several important points. First,
Abraham’s obedience is immediate. Second, it is
unquestioning. Third, it is filled with faith. Was it merely
wishful thinking that made Abraham tell the servants that
“we” will come back to you? Nowhere had God promised
to spare his son. Yet somehow Abraham understood
enough of God’s character that he was willing to do what
God required in the faith that somehow God would work
out the details and spare his son.
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, Isaac
spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘‘Father?”
‘‘Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
‘‘The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, ‘‘but where is
the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, ‘‘God himself will provide the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them
went on together. (vv. 6-8)
Across the centuries Christians have seen in these words
a prefiguring of the death of Christ on the cross. There is
Abraham (representing God) placing the wood
(representing the Cross) upon Isaac (representing Jesus
Christ). It is the father offering his son freely and without
complaint, just as God the Father offered Jesus for the
sins of the whole world.

God Will Provide the Lamb

Somehow Abraham understood something of the
doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. When he said,
“God himself will provide the lamb,” he was pointing not
simply toward the altar on Mount Moriah, but to a
greater sacrifice to be offered at the very same location
almost 2000 years later when God provided the Ultimate
Lamb—Jesus Christ—for the sin of the world.

When they reached the place God had told him about,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of
the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the
knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out
to him from heaven, ‘‘Abraham! Abraham!”
‘‘Here I am,” he replied.
‘‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. ‘‘Do not do
anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because
you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
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. 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.” (vv. 9-14)
Did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac? Yes. Was it
a legitimate request? Yes. Did Abraham know how in
advance how the story would end? No. Specifically, did he
know about the ram in the thicket? No. Well, then, what
was it that Abraham knew? He knew what God had asked
him to do and he knew that God had promised to give
him a son through whom he would bless the world. What
he didn’t know was how God was going to reconcile his
promise (to bless the world through Isaac) and his
command (to offer Isaac as a sacrifice).

Faith at its Highest Point

It is at this point that we see Abraham’s faith at its
highest and best. Even though the command made no
sense from a human point of view, Abraham intended to
obey it anyway. Looking back on this incident some
twenty centuries later, the writer of Hebrews explains it
this way:

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as

a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about
to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had
said to him, ‘‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be
reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the
dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back
from death. (11:17-19)
Abraham planned to kill his own son! He meant to obey
God’s command even though it meant killing God’s
promise. How could a man do such a thing? Because he
believed that God could raise the dead.
The picture is now complete. Abraham offers his son in
death, placing upon his innocent shoulders the wood that
will consume him with fire. He did it believing that God
could raise the dead. Even so, our Heavenly Father
offered his Son in death, placing upon him the weight of
the sin of the world. He allowed his Son to die, knowing
that he would raise him up on the third day.

First the Test, Then the Blessing

The chapter contains one final scene:

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a

second time and said, ‘‘I swear by myself, declares the
LORD, that because you have done this and have not
withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you
and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in
the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your
descendants will take possession of the cities of their
enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth
will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then
Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off
together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in
Beersheba. (vv. 15-19)
Now it all begins to come clear. God intended to bless
Abraham from the very beginning. But he could not do
without putting him to the ultimate test. In this case, that
meant asking Abraham to sacrifice the most precious
thing in his life. In a sense, you might say it this way: God
needed to know something and Abraham needed to
know something.
–God needed to know if Abraham would put his son
ahead of his God
–Abraham needed to know if God could be trusted
completely
When I say “God needed to know,” I don’t mean that
literally because God already knew what Abraham would
do. Yet the angel of the Lord said, “Now I know that you
fear God” (v. 12). Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac
demonstrated the unquestioning obedience that God
desired. Now God knows, Abraham knows, Isaac knows,
and thousands of years later, we know that Abraham
fears God and wants to please him.
Seen in this light, the text is simple to explain but it takes
a lifetime to apply this truth. In fact, I dare say that God
leads most of us again and again up Mount Moriah where
we are asked to sacrifice the dearest and best in life.

“Pastor Ray, You’ve Got to Let Go”

In one of his books Watchman Nee said that we approach
God like little children with open hands, begging for gifts.
Because he is a good God, he fills our hands with good
things—life, health, friends, money, success, recognition,
challenge, marriage, children, a nice home, a good job, all
the things that we count at Thanksgiving when we count
our blessings. And so like children, we rejoice in what we
have received and run around comparing what we have
with each other. When our hands are finally full, God says,
“My child, I long to have fellowship with you. Reach out
your hand and take my hand. But we can’t do it because
our hands are full. “God, we can’t,” we cry. “Put those
things aside and take my hand,” he replied. “No, we
can’t. It’s too hard to put them down.” “But I am the one
who gave them too you in the first place.” “O God, what
you have asked for is too hard. Please don’t ask us to put
these things aside.” And God answers quietly, “You
must.”

I learned this truth the hard way almost 10 years ago. It

happened in another time and another place when I
thought I was on top of the world. Everything looked so
good to me. One day a friend dropped by to see me. “Do
you have a few minutes to talk, Pastor Ray?” “Of course,”
I replied, “Come in.” After a few minutes of conversation,
she came to her point. “Pastor Ray, you have to let go.
You’re holding on too tightly.”

How a Good Thing Becomes an Idol

It was one of those moments where from the first word
of that sentence I knew exactly what she was going to
say. And I knew she was right. Deep in my heart, I had
known it for a long time but didn’t want to face the truth.
I was holding on to something so tightly that it had
become an idol to me, something dearer than life itself.
Before you ask, let me say simply that the thing was not
evil or bad. In fact, it was a good thing that had become
an idol that I dared not give up. (An idol is anything good
that becomes too important in your life.)

One year passed and things in my little world began to fall

apart. Through a long string of circumstances I found
myself facing a tragedy. Looking back I can see clearly
that God was prying my fingers off that “thing” one by
one. But he got down to the thumb, I fought back. I didn’t
want to give it up. But God is stronger than any man and
eventually he pulled my thumb off. I gave my idol back to
him, but when I gave it back, I saw clearly that it was no
pagan idol, but something good that had become too
important in my life. In the end God took back that which
had always belonged to him in the first place.
One Sunday afternoon during this personal crisis I took a
long walk and began to meditate on a passage of
Scripture in 1 Peter that says, “So then, those who suffer
according to God’s will should commit themselves to
their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (4:19).
The little phrase “according to God’s will” caught my
attention. I realized that it had been many years since I
had been concerned about doing God’s will. Once that
had been a consuming passion; now I hardly ever thought
about it.
And I remembered my friend’s admonition: “Ray, you
need to let go.” As I walked, I held out an open palm and
began to let go. Little by little, I released the things in my
life that I had been holding onto so tightly. As I did, I felt
an enormous sense of relief, as if God were saying, “It’s
about time.”

Len Hoppe and the Open Palm

Now let’s run the film ahead by almost five years. We’re in
another time and place, life has moved to a new chapter.
It’s the dead of winter and a group of us have headed to
Snow Camp at Honey Rock in northern Wisconsin. Nor far
from the camp we stopped at a pizza joint. There were
are—about 25 of us, mostly very loud teenagers and
children, along with a handful of adults. Len and Roberta
Hoppe and Marlene and I slid into a booth together. It
was during the time when Len’s business was beginning
to go badly and he felt enormous pressure from many
sides. As I listened to Len talk so earnestly about how bad
things were and how hard he was working to save his
company, I remembered once again what had happened
to me five years earlier. I told him the story and then held
out my palm in a fist and said, “Len, you’ve got to let go.”

I remember that Len balled up his hand into a fist and

then began prying his fingers loose one by one. He did
that several times as we talked, each time ending up with
an open palm.
That turned out to be a turning point in his own walk with
the Lord. Over the next four years I heard him mention
more than once how important that illustration of God
prying his fingers loose had been in his life. He often used
it to help other people.

From Trial to Blessing

For Len, the road was a rough one for awhile as he lost
his business, was threatened by hired thugs, and then
made a new start in Memphis. As we all now know, even
though he wasn’t there two years, God used him in a
powerful way to touch hundreds of people.
It all went back to that moment when he said, “Oh God, I
don’t want to give this up, but if you want it, I’ll give it
back to you.” God did want it back, he took it back, and
once Len’s hands were empty, he filled them with
spiritual blessings Len had never known.
And now Len is gone, cut down by cancer at the age of
42. Those of us who knew him well feel like saying, “Lord,
how could you take him from us? We loved him. His family
needed him. How could you do this?” I have no real
answer for that question. But I do know this: God owns
everything. We own nothing. Even our life itself is a gift
from God. Everything we have is on loan from him, and he
has the right to take back that which belongs to him at
any moment.

Nothing Left But God

To say it that way raises a question about our text that I
can’t clearly answer. Had Isaac become too important to
Abraham? Was this child of the promise loved too much?
Had he begun to take God’s place in Abraham’s thinking?
We have no way to know whether this is so or not, but we
may be sure that such things do happen for all of us.

I personally believe that God orchestrates the affairs of

life—both the good and the bad—to bring us to the place
where our faith will be in God alone. Slowly but surely as
we go through life, he weans us away from the things of
the world. At first the process touches only our
possessions (which we can replace), but eventually it
touches our relationships (which may not be replaced),
then it touches our loved ones (who cannot be replaced),
finally it touches life itself (which is never replaced). Then
there is nothing left but us and God.
Through all this process our Heavenly Father leads us
along the pathway of complete trust in him. Slowly but
surely we discover that the things we thought we
couldn’t live without don’t matter as much as we thought
they did. Even the dearest and sweetest things of life take
second place to the pleasure of knowing God. In the end
we discover that he has emptied our hands of everything
and then filled them with himself.

Hold Lightly What God Has Given You

In writing these words I am keenly aware that I only dimly
understand their full meaning. At this point in my life I still
have many things in my hands—my wife, my three boys,
my friends, my career, my health, my dreams, my plans
for the future. But the process of growing older is
nothing more than this—learning to hold lightly the
things God has given you, knowing that you can’t keep
them forever anyway. At any moment, he can take them
away—one by one, two at a time, or all of them together.
Or he could take back the life he gave me 44 years ago.

If I have any advice for you, it is this. Learn to hold lightly

what God has given you. You can’t keep it forever and
you can’t take it with you.
Some of you who read these words are in the midst of a
great struggle in your life. You feel pressured about
something and you don’t want to give it up. But you must
… and you will. I can’t spare you the pain of yielding your
dearest treasures to God, but I promise you the joy will
far outweigh the pain you feel right now.
How Much Does God Love You?
I close by reminding you that in this story we see a
beautiful pageant of God’s love. In Genesis 22 we see
what a man would do for the love of God. But at Calvary
we see what God would do for the love of man. Abraham
was only asked to sacrifice Isaac; God actually sacrificed
his only Son. More than that, Jesus endured physical
death and spiritual death to obtain redemption for
sinners. When God’s hand was raised at Calvary, there
was no one to cry out, “Stop. Do not harm the child.”
There was no ram in the thicket to offer in his place. So
God’s hand fell in judgment on his own Son, and Jesus
died for you and me.

This is what God did for you and for me. How much does
God love us? Look to the bloody Cross and there you will
find your answer.

What Is Your Isaac?

– Hebrews 11:17-19
Email
Print

MORE FROM THIS SERIES

• By Faith
Sermon 1 of 15 – Hebrews 11:1-2
• It’s the Faith, Brother
Sermon 2 of 15 – Hebrews 11:3-7
• The Incredible Journey
Sermon 3 of 15 – Hebrews 11:8-10
• The Blessing of a Believing Spouse
Sermon 4 of 15 –
Hebrews 11:11-12
• Why We Keep Believing
Sermon 5 of 15 – Hebrews 11:13-16
• If I Should Die Before I Wake
Sermon 7 of 15 – Hebrews
11:20-22
• Shall We Kill Our Children Today?
Sermon 8 of 15 – Hebrews
11:23
• The Great Refusal
Sermon 9 of 15 – Hebrews 11:24-28
• The Final Difference Between the Church and the
World
Sermon 10 of 15 – Hebrews 11:29
• Why Jericho Fell
Sermon 11 of 15 – Hebrews 11:30
• From Rahab to Jesus
Sermon 12 of 15 – Hebrews 11:31
• Four Cracked Pots
Sermon 13 of 15 – Hebrews 11:32
• Miracles Come in Many Varieties
Sermon 14 of 15 –
Hebrews 11:33-38
• The Next Hero
Sermon 15 of 15 – Hebrews 11:39-40
MORE RESOURCES LIKE THIS
• The First Law: He's God and We're Not
• What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? – Romans
1:18-20
• What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? – Romans
1:18-20
• The Fifth Law: Active Faith Releases God's Power –
Hebrews 11
• Should Our Teachers Be Required to Sign the Articles of
Faith? – Various
• What is Saving Faith? – Romans 10:9-10
• Christmas Hope – Hebrews 6:18-20
• God's Multicultural Church – Romans 15:7-13
• The Most Sought After Things in the World – Romans 5:1-5

Sermon 6 of 15 from the Outrageous Faith series

Listen to this sermon:
4 questions or comments

August 2008 – Certain Bible stories need no introduction.

They are so well known that even people outside the
church who may never actually read the Bible have heard
them.

Adam and Eve.
Noah and the ark.
Moses at the
Red Sea.
Joshua and the walls of Jericho.
David and
Goliath.
Daniel in the lions’ den.

And while you are
making that list, which could be much longer, don’t
forget to add this one:

Abraham and Isaac.

A father
and a son. 
Abraham ready to do what God
commanded.
Isaac carrying the wood.
Abraham building
the altar.
Isaac climbing on the altar.
Abraham tying his
son with ropes.
Isaac waiting for the knife to
fall.
Abraham raising the knife.

And then . . . And then . .
.

No wonder the writer of Hebrews focuses on this
scene. Hebrews 11:17-19 shows us three aspects of
Abraham’s amazing faith in the greatest trial he would ever
face.
I. Abraham’s Test
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac
as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was
about to sacrifice his one and only son” (v. 17).

In reading this story we face several problems. The first

and largest deals with the issue of God’s character. How
could a loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only
Son? Some critics have dismissed the story on the
grounds that it presents a grotesque caricature of the
God of the Bible. Perhaps the only adequate reply is the
obvious one—that we humans are hardly in a position to
criticize Almighty God on any grounds whatsoever.

RELATED BOOK

The Incredible Journey of Faith

The life of faith is a journey with God that begins
the moment we
trust Christ. It is is about
learning to give up control of those
things
we never really controlled 
in the first place.
Get more details

There is a second problem that is more or less related to the

first. Because we all feel the problem of God asking
Abraham to sacrifice his son, there is an unconscious
tendency to read this story backwards. That is, we start
with the fact that Abraham ended up not having to put
his own son to death. And we say, “See, God never
wanted Isaac to die in the first place.” Although that
statement is true on one level, we risk missing the
meaning of the text if we go too far down that road.
Whatever else we may say, it is unquestionably true that
God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.
Genesis 22:1-2 tells us what was at stake:

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him,

‘‘Abraham!” Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, ‘‘Take
your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to
the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt
offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
It would have been enough if God had simply said, “Take
your son.” But he said qualified that phrase three ways.
Your only son—not forgetting Ishmael who was also his
son, but meaning that Isaac was the promised son.
Isaac—the son for whom Abraham and Sarah had waited
for 25 years. Whom you love—which might seem as if
God were mocking him, but these words were meant to
reassure him that God knew what he was asking. By
saying it this way, Abraham would know that God
understood what it would cost him to obey.

Either you obey or you don’t. If you stop to argue,

that in itself is a form of disobedience.
Let us be clear about what God was asking at this point.
He wanted Abraham to travel with his son to Moriah
(which today is called Jerusalem) and build an altar of
stones on one of the mountains. He would then make a
platform of wood on the stones. Then Abraham was to
ask Isaac to lie down on the wood. Then he would take a
knife and slit Isaac’s throat in the same way that a sacrificial
lamb was slain. Finally, he would light the wood, burning
his son’s body as an offering to God.

This is what God told Abraham to do. At that point the

man of faith only has two options. Either you obey or you
don’t. If you stop to argue, that in itself is a form of
disobedience. If you try to talk God out of it, that too is
disobedience. If you offer an alternate plan, that is also
disobedience.
II. Abraham’s
Trust
“Even though God had said to him, ’It is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned’” (v. 18).

At this point the writer wants us to think about what was

at stake. We naturally focus on the unimaginable sorrow
of losing a child. To any parent that alone would be an
unspeakable tragedy. Nothing in all the world seems more
unnatural than for parents to bury their children. The
death of a child is like a period before the end of a
sentence. And in this case God told Abraham to offer his
own son, and Abraham was fully prepared to do it, so
prepared, in fact, that Hebrews 11:17 actually says that
Abraham “offered” Isaac as a sacrifice, meaning that
when he laid his son on the altar and raised the knife, he
fully intended to put him to death. Naturally our minds
focus on that aspect because it is so poignant and
personal.
But the writer wants us to think of something else. God
had already promised to make Abraham the head of a
great nation, and through that nation to bring great
blessing to the world (Genesis 12:1-3). And God had said
that he would bring forth that nation from Isaac’s
descendants. But that couldn’t happen if Isaac (who was
only a teenager) was dead. Here we are faced with what
seems to be an enormous contradiction.
 Faith believes and leaves the “how” in the hands of
Almighty God.
God commanded him to offer his son Isaac.
God promised to bring forth offspring through Isaac.

The promise and the command seem to flatly contradict

each other. If Abraham obeys the command, does that
not cancel the promise since Isaac will be dead? If he
disobeys the command, what happens to the promise?
Here is the shining, amazing, beyond-this-world character
of Abraham’s faith.

He didn’t know how God would do it.
He just knew God

would do it somehow.

Herein lies a lesson for all of us. When God makes a

promise, it is folly and disbelief to wonder how he will
keep his word. Faith does not reckon with “how.” Faith
believes and leaves the “how” in the hands of Almighty
God. If we spend too much time trying to figure out
“how” God will take care of us, we are likely to talk
ourselves into a corner.

As you ponder this amazing story, remember that

Abraham no idea—none!—of what was about to happen
when he and Isaac started on the three-day journey to
Moriah. That is, he set out to obey God, knowing the One
who had called him to offer his beloved son would solve
the “how” question in his own way.

There are times in life—many times—when our only job is

to take the next step. We aren’t called to figure out the
big picture or to explain where it will lead.
God say, “Go” and we go.
He says, “Stop” and we
stop.
He says, “Give me your dearest possession,” and
we offer it to him.

This is the true life of faith.

III. Abraham’s
Triumph
“Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and
figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from
death” (v. 19).

In this verse we learn something that is only hinted at in

Genesis 22. Twice in that chapter Abraham intimates that
he expects that somehow, some way, God was going to
work things out so that Isaac would live. When he saw
Moriah in the distance, he gave this instruction 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” (Genesis 22: 5).
Did you get that? “We” will come to you. Not “I” will
come back, but “we” will come back. Abraham believed
that he and his son would somehow return together. Then
as the two of them walked along, with Isaac carrying the
wood for the sacrifice, the son asked his father, “Where
is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (v. 7). Abraham’s
reply has become a synonym for the man of faith
speaking faith into what is a humanly hopeless situation.
“God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt
offering, my son” (v. 8).

The writer of Hebrews tells us why Abraham could talk

like that. He believed that God could raise the dead.
Didn’t know how.
Had never seen it happen.
Abraham believed that he and his son would
somehow return together.
He reasoned from what he knew about God to what he
knew about the situation. And the only thing he could
come up with was, “I’m going to put my own son to
death, and then God will raise him from the dead.” That’s
pretty fantastic if you think about it, especially since no
one in history had ever been raised from the dead, and
this happened 2000 years before Christ.

It turns out that he was partly right about it. God can raise
the dead, a fact proved at the empty tomb outside the
walls of Jerusalem. That part was 100% correct. But he
was wrong about Isaac dying that day. He didn’t literally
die because at the very last second, Abraham saw a ram
caught in a thicket, a ram placed there by God, and he
offered the ram in the place of his son. Thus figuratively
he did receive Isaac back from the dead.

Faith at its
Highest Point
Now we can stand back and see the story in clear
perspective. Did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son
Isaac? Yes. Was it a legitimate request? Yes. Did Abraham
know in advance how the story would end? No.
Specifically, did he know about the ram in the thicket? No.
Well, then, what was it that Abraham knew? He knew
what God had asked him to do, and he knew that God had
promised to give him a son through whom he would bless
the world. What he didn’t know was how God was going to
reconcile his promise (to bless the world through Isaac) and
his command (to offer Isaac as a sacrifice).

It is at this point that we see Abraham’s faith at its highest

and best. Even though the command made no sense from
a human point of view, Abraham intended to obey it
anyway. He meant to obey God’s command even though
it meant killing God’s promise. How could a man do such
a thing? Because he believed that God could raise the
dead.

And for 2000 years Christians have seen in this story a

picture of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Genesis 22 we see what a man would do for the
love of God. But at Calvary we see what God would do for
the love of man. Abraham was only asked to sacrifice
Isaac; God actually sacrificed his only Son. More than that,
Jesus endured physical death and spiritual death to
obtain redemption for sinners. When God’s hand was
raised at Calvary, there was no one to cry out, “Stop. Do
not harm the child.” There was no ram in the thicket to
offer in his place. So God’s hand fell in judgment on his
own Son, and Jesus died for you and me.

Abraham offered his son.
The Father offered his Son.

Isaac carried the wood.
Jesus carried the cross.

Isaac was laid on the altar.
Jesus was nailed to the cross.

Abraham was willing to put his son to death.
The Father
willed that his Son should die.

The ram was offered in the place of Isaac.
Christ was

offered in the place of sinners.

Abraham received his son back “figuratively.”
Jesus

literally rose from the dead.

What are we supposed to take away from the story of

Abraham and Isaac? When I read Genesis 22, I was struck
by something God said to Abraham after the great trial
was over, the ram sacrificed, Isaac spared, the promise
reaffirmed. It comes as part of the happy ending to a very
great trial. God commends Abraham by saying, “You have
not withheld from me your son, your only son” (v. 12;
see also verse 16).

“You did not withhold from me.”
God says, “I asked for

your most precious possession and you gave it to me.”

Not a Mite
Would I
Withhold
As I read that, I started singing to myself these familiar
words from a hymn written by Frances Havergal:

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to

Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in
ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at
the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my
King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages
from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would
I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as
Thou shalt choose.
SCRIPTURES REFERENCED

Genesis 22
• The Third Law: What God Demands, He Supplies
• The Incomparable Christ: “Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord”
• From Jacob to Jesus

Hebrews 11
• By Faith
• The Incredible Journey
• Four Cracked Pots
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer
mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal
throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its
treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for
Thee.

Seen in this light, the text is simple to explain but it
takes a lifetime to learn. I dare say that God leads most of
us again and again up Mount Moriah where we are asked
to sacrifice the dearest and best in life.

An idol is anything good that becomes too important

to you.
In one of his books Watchman Nee said that we approach
God like little children with open hands, begging for gifts.
Because he is a good God, he fills our hands with good
things—life, health, friends, money, success, recognition,
challenge, marriage, children, a nice home, a good job, all
the things that we count at Thanksgiving when we count
our blessings. And so like children, we rejoice in what we
have received and run around comparing what we have
with each other. When our hands are finally full, God says,
“My child, I long to have fellowship with you. Reach out
your hand and take my hand.” But we can’t do it because
our hands are full. “God, we can’t,” we cry. “Put those
things aside and take my hand.” “No, we can’t It’s too
hard to put them down.” “But I am the one who gave
them to you in the first place.” “O God, what you have
asked is too hard. Please don’t ask us to put these things
aside.” And God answers quietly, “You must.”

God made me face this truth the hard way many years
ago when a friend came and said, “Pastor Ray, you’re
hold on too tight.” I knew then exactly what my friend
meant, and the words were true, they cut deep, and I
didn’t want to admit it. So I continued to hold on to “that
thing” that had become so dear to me.
We Love Our
Idols
In one of her books Elizabeth Elliot makes the point that
the process of Christian growth is one in which God
breaks the idols of our life one by one by one. Oh, how
painful it is because by definition, we love our idols. We
protect them because they give us strength and hope and
meaning.
Here’s the tricky part. Most of our idols are perfectly good
things. That thing I was holding on to so tightly wasn’t
anything bad or evil or wrong. It was something good
that had become too important to me. Pause to consider
this sentence:

An idol is anything good that becomes
too important to you.
We tend to associate idols with those heathen statues
made of gold, silver, wood or stone. And if that’s all an
idol is, we’re in the clear because we don’t bow down
before those weird statues and offer pig blood or chicken
entrails. Why would we do something like that? But an
idol doesn’t need to be a statue. An idol can be anything
good—our children, for instance—or our fame, our
athletic prowess, our reputation, our money, our home,
our position, our education, our cars, the people we
know, the degrees we earned, the money we made, the
deals we closed, the classes we taught, the friends we
cultivated in high places, the buildings we built, the
organizations we managed, the budgets we balanced, the
books we wrote, the songs we sang, the records we
made, the trips we took, the portfolios we built, the
fortunes we amassed, our name in the lights, all those
things that make us feel comfortable and safe and give us
status in the world.
Could your spouse be an idol? Yes.
Could your family be
an idol? Yes.
Could your children be an idol? Yes.
Could
your money be an idol? Yes.
Could your ministry be an
idol? Yes.
Could your career be an idol? Yes.
Anything wrong with being married, having a family,
raising your children, making some money, having a
career, getting an education, having a ministry, making
your way in the world, and even having something to
show for it?
Anything wrong with that? No. It’s all good. 
And
anything good can become an idol.
That’s the real challenge of this story. Abraham had to
come to the place where he willingly gave back to God
what was always God’s in the first place. In my own case,
when God began to pry my fingers off that thing I valued
so much, when he got down to the thumb, I fought back.
But as the wise man said, Your arms are too short to box
with God. He’s going to win every time. Eventually he
pried my thumb off, and then he took back that thing that
had always belonged to me in the first place.

Hold Lightly
What You Value
Greatly
Whenever I tell that story, I always make this point. Hold
lightly what you value greatly because it doesn’t belong to
you anyway. Every time I say that, heads nod because
everyone knows it’s true.

We come into this life with nothing.
We leave with

nothing.
In between, God fills our hands with good things. And
then he asks us to give them back to him so that we can
walk in fellowship with him. Oh, how painful that process
is. I have found in my life—and in talking with many
people—that the process of letting go is the work of a
lifetime. For most of us, there isn’t simply one crisis
moment, but rather a continual letting go. When I have the
courage to open my hand and let go in the evening, I get
up the next morning and try to grab it back again.
It seems to be a lesson we all have to learn over and over
again. And God in his kindness keeps bringing us back to
Moriah, back to the place of sacrifice, back to the place
where we offer up to God our dearest and our best and
say, “Lord, it all belongs to you.”

It is God’s kindness that is on display in this story.

Note that I said, “God in his kindness.” It is the kindness
of God that led Abraham to Moriah, and it is God’s
kindness that leads us back to the place of sacrifice where
we yield up to him our dreams, our desires, our plans, our
hopes, the things we own, our dearest friends, our loved
ones, and finally we give to him the life he gave us in the
beginning.

It is God’s kindness that is on display in this story. When we

are struggling with God and trying so desperately to hold
on to those things we value so much, it may not feel like
God’s kindness but it is. He knows better than we do that
as long as we hold on, good things become idols to us,
and any idol—especially the “good” ones, those things
that are not wrong in themselves, the gifts God has given
us that become too important to us—comes between us
and the God who loves us supremely and wants only the
best for us.

When we finally have the courage to let go . . . 
When we

stop trying desperately to hold on . . .
When we open our
hands to God . . .
When we hold lightly what we value
greatly . . . 
When we give back to God what was always
his anyway . . .
Then and only then are we truly free. I started to type the
word “happy” but that wouldn’t be quite right, would it?
The yielding up is often very painful and we don’t feel
very good about it, and sometimes we don’t feel good
even when it is all over. So “happy” isn’t the right word.

Free is the right word.
Only then are we truly free.

How wonderful to enter into the liberty of saying, “Lord, I

have no idea how all this will work out. All I know is, all of
this belongs to you. Do with it as you will.” And the Lord
says, “Bring your dearest and best to the altar and leave it
all in my hands.”

God orchestrates the affairs of life, the
good and the bad, the happy and the sad, to bring us to the
place where our faith will be in him alone. Slowly but surely
as we go through life, he weans us away from the things
of the world. At first the process touches only our
possessions (which we can replace), but eventually it
touches our relationships (which may not be replaced),
then it touches our loved ones (who cannot be replaced),
finally it touches life itself (which is never replaced). Then
there is nothing left but us and God.

Letting Go
Through all of this our Heavenly Father leads us along the
pathway of complete trust in him. Slowly but surely we
discover that the things we thought we couldn’t live
without don’t matter as much as we thought they did.
Even the dearest and sweetest things of life take second
place to the pleasure of knowing God. In the end we
discover that he has emptied our hands of everything and
then filled them with himself.
I admit that as I write these words, I am only dimly aware of
what they mean. It happens that I am writing this on the
morning of our 34th wedding anniversary. Later today
Marlene and I plan to drive to Birmingham where we will
spend the night in a hotel, have a nice meal, see our son
Nick, and celebrate God’s goodness to us. All of our
children are doing well. I am 55 years old and in good
health. Marlene’s health is good. We have learned in the
last few years to take nothing for granted because there
are no guarantees about the future. We are learning to
keep an open hand, holding lightly what we value greatly
because it all belongs to God anyway.

Some who read these words are in the midst of a great

struggle in your life. You feel pressured about something
and you don’t want to give it up. But you must . . . and
you will. I can’t spare you the pain of yielding your dearest
treasures to God, but I promise you the joy will far
outweigh the pain you feel right now.

We’ve gained so much that we don’t dare let go lest

we lose the whole world. And somewhere in the
process, we lost our own soul.
Let’s wrap up with just one line from that hymn by
Frances Havergal: “Not a mite would I withhold.” A mite
is a tiny thing, a little bit of money, like having a penny in
your hand. It’s not how much you have that matters to
God. It’s what you do with what you have.

Will you hold on to what you own? 
Or will you say, “Lord,
it all belongs to you anyway"?
It was Christ himself who asked, “What do you benefit if
you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?”
(Mark 8:36 NLT). Maybe that’s our real problem. We’ve
gained so much that we don’t dare let go lest we lose the
whole world. And somewhere in the process, we lost our
own soul.
So here’s the deal.
You can keep the world for the moment, but you’ll have
to give it up in the end.
Or you can keep your soul by
letting go of the things that were never yours anyway.
What is your Isaac? 
Are you willing to lay it down for
Jesus’ sake?