Vineyard Church North Phoenix | January 6th, 2008

Genesis 20

Abraham’s tendency to rely on his wits rather than on God also is shown in the events leading up to the birth of Ishmael. Some 10 years passed while Abraham waited for God to send the son He had promised. Finally Sarah began urging him to take her maid as a secondary wife. Even though this was a custom of the land, it took Sarah’s nagging to make him take action. He “hearkened to [obeyed] the voice of Sarai” (16:2, KJV). Perhaps Abram thought he would “help” God keep His promises! Perhaps he felt that 86 was just too old to wait any longer. In any case, Abram did not consult God. He simply went ahead, without direction, relying on his own plan to fulfill God’s purposes. Self-reliance and self-effort took the place of trust in God.

And then, how stunning. Abraham repeated the sin he did in Egypt! Again Abraham misrepresented Sarah as only his sister, and she was placed in the harem of a king named Abimelech. God protected Sarah even though her husband was not willing to, and before Abimelech came to her God spoke to him in a vision. Abimelech, fearful at the divine visit, complained to Abraham that he might have led the king into unknowing sin! Abram’s reply was weak (20:11-12). Abraham was worried, afraid that the people of the foreign land they visited might not fear God, and thus might kill him for Sarah. Abraham feared for his life—but not for his wife!

Abraham apparently had not stopped to think that though a particular people might not know God, God knew them! There was no place that Abraham could go to be beyond the protection of the Lord. Yet, even after an earlier rebuke in Egypt, Abraham repeated the same sin and let fear and selfishness control his choices.

No, the Abraham we meet on the pages of the Bible is no idealized man. He is a man we need to see both as weak, and as a willful sinner.

Genesis 21

Even though Sarah was upset by the 15-year-old Ishmael teasing her 2-year-old (v. 9, TLB), there was no excuse in custom for her insistence that Ishmael and his mother be sent away with no part of Abraham’s wealth. In fact, custom dictated that Ishmael be provided for. No wonder it “distressed Abraham greatly” (v. 11). God intervened to promise Abraham that He would care for Ishmael and make him a nation too. Only then was Abraham willing to expel the two.

Genesis 22

Abraham reasoned (Gen. 22). This is one of the most unusual and, at the same time, most exciting stories in the Bible. Isaac, the promised heir, had been born. The old man had grown to dearly love this child for whom he had waited so long with such eager expectation. Suddenly, as if to shatter the old man’s world, God spoke to him again. “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” (v. 2).

Then the Bible tells us an amazing thing: “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” (v. 3).

There was no hesitation.

Abraham obeyed.

We can’t know how Abraham felt on the three-day journey, or the doubts and fears that may have filled his heart and mind. But we do know that before he arrived, Abraham had worked the problem through. “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead” (Heb. 11:19). Abraham knew that God had promised, “through Isaac . . . your offspring will be reckoned” (v. 18). God would not go back on His stated word. If God chose to accept Isaac as a sacrifice, Abraham would give him, sure that the Lord would give the child back again.

And so the Genesis text reveals, in a Hebrew plural: “Stay here,” Abraham told the servants who accompanied them. “I and the boy [will] go over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you” (Gen. 22:5). Abraham did not know the means. But he did know that God would provide.

God did. As Abraham was about to plunge the knife into the bound body of his son, the Lord stopped him and pointed out a ram whose horns had been caught in a thicket. The ram was slain; the boy was freed. God Himself had provided a substitute.

And then God spoke again. The test was complete. God’s promises to Abraham were reconfirmed and Abraham, his trust also confirmed by the events, returned with Isaac to their tents.

Abraham’s journey to Mount Moriah is portrayed in Scripture as a test. It was a test that Abraham passed, and in passing demonstrated to God, to himself, to Isaac—and to us—the reality of his trust in God.

Genesis 23

God had affirmed His existence and His care for men. God had spoken to individuals before, like Noah and Cain. But it is in Abraham that we discover a clear illustration of what has always separated mankind’s Noahs from its Cains. It isn’t that Cain was intrinsically “worse.” Both were men of mixed character. Both did good things, yet found reflected in their actions the taint of sin.

No, what sets men apart as far as relationship with God is concerned has always been a simple thing: faith. Noah trusted God and built an ark in which he and his family were saved. Cain refused to trust God. This led directly to his final bondage to sin, a servitude whose full expression is found in the murder of his brother.

Faith divides man from man. The way you and I respond to God as He speaks His message to us is the critical issue of our lives. This is the message we hear in the story of Abraham. From Abraham we learn much of the nature of that faith which pleases God and frees Him to act in our lives today.

Reflection

Has there been a time that you didn’t wait for God’s plan but pursued your own plan? What did you learn from that experience and from the experience of Abraham? What will you do to be more patient with God’s plan in the future?