The Greatest Test

I want to start tonight kind of weird. There is this book I've read that I really like. I dug around for about an hour looking for it today and couldn't find it. (Must have lent it to someone.) So I just printed off a picture of the cover. The book was written by a couple of Ivy League professors who are brothers named Chip and Dan Heath and it's called "Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die."

How many commercials have you seen over the years? Probably 1,000s right? But some of them stick to you. You never forget them. Remember "This is your brain - this is your brain on..." Remember "Where's the beef?" Why do you remember those commercials but you forget the commercial for the car lot up the road?

They did a lot of research on this and they came up with a simple acronym. If it's going to stick - it's got to follow the SUCCESS acronym:

simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and have a story. Success.

You all know the story of Abraham and Isaac. I doubt there is anybody in here - even the little kids - who couldn't tell me the basics of the story.

Think about it from the standpoint of Made to Stick:

This story is as simple as it could be. God tells Abraham to Sacrifice his son, Abraham obeys God.

It is unexpected. No one reading the great story of the promises of God to Abraham and then the birth of Isaac is thinking - I know what's coming next - God is going to tell Abraham to murder this kid. No! This comes out of nowhere.

It is concrete. The picture of a little boy on an altar, sitting on top of fire wood with his father standing over him with a knife. Nothing is more concrete than that.

It is credible - it's in the Bible.

It is emotional. This may be the most emotional story in the whole Bible. It touches a cord in all of us.

And of course it's a story. So you remember it.

But as you read it - I want you to think about something: What was God doing? What was God up to? I mean - why?? That's the angle we are going to take tonight and I think it is going to teach you a lot about our God and our walk with Him.

Let's read the chapter.

So what is God doing here? What is God up to?

I mean, when you think about this story - it doesn't look good. Can you imagine the field day the God-haters have with a story like this. What's God up to?

I think there are two things going on in this story and once you understand what those two things are the story takes on a totally different meaning.

The first thing we see God up to in this story is:

1. We see a test for Abraham Verse 1 says:

"And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham."

I think the word "tempt" there is unfortunate. James 1:13 says:

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man."

I'm not saying the word "tempt" is a mistake here. I'm just saying I think we have to look a little deeper. If you look at the Hebrew word "nacah" you'd see that it means:

to test, try, prove, tempt, assay, put to the proof or test

If you look how it is used in the Old Testament you'd find that about half the time, its translated "prove" and sometimes it's translated "try."

An old preacher named F.B. Meyer said this about it:

Satan TEMPTS people to do evil. God tests people to bring out good.

I think that is what is going on here. God is testing Abraham. He's not trying to trip up Abraham - He knows Abraham can do it. He's trying to bring out the good in Abraham's life by bringing Abraham through this time of testing.

A good teacher doesn't give a test until he knows his students can pass it. Believe me, if I gave my students a test and I hadn't prepared them for it - it wasn't going to be them that was in trouble - but me.

I think God works the same way. God had been preparing Abraham for this test for 50 years. Through other smaller tests God was prepping him for the big test.

So God says to Abraham -

"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

This came out of the blue. No warning. I'm sure Abraham must of felt blindsided by this test.

Let's take a close look. See first that it was:

A. A Test of Abraham's communion. Abraham would have never heard this test had he not been communicating with God. The easiest thing for Him would have been to say "That wasn't God speaking to me - that was some bad pizza or something." But Abraham had heard God's voice so many times by this point He knew who was talking to him. He knew it was God.

And he knew that it was...

B. A test of Abraham's love. Again, look at verse 2. God said "Take thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest."

Abraham kind of got setup here. He had been looking forward to Isaac for years. Decades. That child meant more to him than anything in the whole world. He was Isaac. He was laughter. He was his only son Isaac.

But God wanted to see who was more important to Abraham - God or God's blessing. The child of promise or the one who did the promising. It was a test of Abraham's love.

In much the same way - God wants us to love Him. WHoleheartedly - more than anything else. Matthew 10:37 says:

"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Mt. 10:37)

Deuteronomy 6:5 - a passage every jew would know by heart says -

"And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Dt. 6:5)

God wants us to love Him above all others. More than your wife. More than your children. More than anything. God wants us to love Him. He was testing that in Abraham here.

Third, it was...

C. A test of Abraham's obedience. I think this was the main test. Jesus said (in John 14:15)

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Abraham had the hardest commandment ever to obey. He was to take his son, his only son, and march three days journey into a group of mountains and sacrifice his son there.

This was the ultimate test of obedience and love.

And what does Abraham do? He gets up early in the morning and does it. He obeys. He doesn't even let one of his servants saddle his donkey. He obeys right away. He doesn't even know what specific mountain he is going to - doesn't matter. He obeys. Right away. No question. No delay. No protest.

I can't even get my kids to obey right away about little things - but Abraham was so conditioned to obey God that the biggest commandment and hardest commandment he could ever get He obeyed right away.

Now, that doesn't mean it wasn't hard. It doesn't mean it wasn't emotional. It doesn't mean Abraham didn't choke up. I don't imagine there was a lot of talking going on on that 3 day hike to Mt. Moriah. But he obeyed.

Do you love God enough to keep His commandments? Are there any commandments of God that you are just like "Eh...no. Not going to happen God." Can I say something humbly - as someone who probably isn't much better than you and may be worse - that's about as much as you love God.

Sometimes we play this game with the kids where we say "How much do you love me?" And they say "THIIIISSS MUCH!" When God says "How much do you love me?" and we refuse to obey His commandments - He knows how much.

What is it? Your entertainment choices? Your friends? Your porn addiction? Your job. Your savings account? Your time? Your clothes? What is it that is off limits to God?

This much...and no more.

Abraham passed this test of His obedience.

The last part of this test is it was...

D. A test of Abraham's faith You see - God had promised Abraham that He would be blessed and the father of many nations. God had specifically told Abraham that that would come through Isaac and not Ishmael. Abraham had specific promises to hang onto.

This was a test of faith. It was God seeing if Abraham believed that God would keep His promises.

And Abraham passed the test. Look what Abraham said in verse 5:

"And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you."

Wow. "We are going to worship. We will come again."

Abraham knew that no matter what happened up there - Isaac was coming down that mountain.

And by the way - God didn't disappoint. God waited until He knew - and then God stopped Abraham.

So this was a testing of Abraham and Abraham passed it. He didn't pass all his tests. Not by a long shot. But he passed this one.

So what is God doing? He's giving Abraham a test. But I don't think that is the main thing God was doing in this passage. The second thing we see in this passage is:

2. We see a testament for us. You see - God is trying to teach us about Himself. Remember the "made to stick" illustration. Remember the acronym. No one knows better how to get things to stick with us than God. He made us. Telling us "I'm almighty" or "I'm gracious" doesn't translate to us very well - showing us through a concrete story like this sinks in a little more.

There are five things this is a testament of about God. Five things God was teaching us in Genesis 22 about Himself.

First, it is...

A. A testament of God's place. God wants us to love Him more than anything. He is a jealous God. He commands that we love Him with all of our heart and soul and mind. He wants first place in our life.

How clearly we see that in Abraham! We know how much Isaac meant to Abraham - and yet God had to mean more.

What is it in your life that means more than God?

Second, it was...

B. A testament of God's provision. At the end of this chapter Abraham calls this place "Jehova-jireh" "Jehovah Provides."

God was always going to provide a lamb. God was always going to provide a ram in the thickets.

God knows us - He knows how frail we are and how weak we are. He knows we cannot pass His ultimate test - so He provided us a lamb. He provided us Christ. This passage so beautifully foreshadows that.

Which brings me to the next thing:

C. A testament of God's plan. The mountain that Isaac was to be offered on - that's the very same mountain the temple would sit. It's within eyeshot of the place where God would offer His only son Jesus Christ. That's the real Lamb that God was going to provide.

You see, nothing we can bring to God is really worthwhile. It's all tainted. We are sinners. None of our sacrifices are going to do the trick. But God provided the perfect lamb. Spotless - not one speck of sin. Human but still God. God poured out the wrath that we deserve on His only Son Jesus Christ and because of that - we get to walk back down the mountain as new people.

There is so much symbolism in this story. There is Isaac who symbolizes Jesus. He doesn't say a word. At some point Isaac understood what was going on. But he didn't squeem. It's like Jesus. Isaiah 53:6 said about our Lord:

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."

God knows what He is doing - and this whole thing forshadows Jesus.

But there is a flip side to that. The fourth thing this is a testament of is, it is...

D. A testament of God's passion. You see - we don't think about this so much - but it costs God the Father something to sacrifice God the son. There is so much in the Bible about what Jesus gave. But it wasn't just Jesus who sacrificed on Calvary.

There probably isn't a better story that shows us what it cost the Father. His only begotten son.

There's a story about an old man who opperated a train bridge. His job was just to switch the tracks when the train was coming over the bridge so that it wouldn't go off a cliff. This man had one son.

One day, that man was out at his post and he heard the train coming and then he heard something else. He heard his son stuck in the tracks. He had to make a decision. He didn't have time. His son or all of the people on that train. The train was coming. There wasn't time. What would you do?

It costs our Father something. We forget that. But it did.

We sing

How deep the fathers love for us. How vast beyond all measure. That He would send his only son. To make a wretch His treasure.

It costs Him something.

One last lesson here. This passage is:

E. A testament of God's person. God isn't trying to get something from you. He is trying to give something to you.

God won't hurt you.