The Lord Will Provide
Genesis 22:1-14
The text before us today is one that, hopefully, most Christians are acquainted with. Now, the enemy is most definitely acquainted with it and would like to see it erased from existence. You can see this in the world’s response to it. This story, to the world, is an example of the wickedness of God. After all, how could a good God ask a father to sacrifice his only son? Doesn’t God condemn child sacrifice in his law? Why does God contradict himself? This just shows how evil Christianity is. Why do they say this? Because some have never read the Bible and therefore have no idea why God is doing this. They can’t trace the promise, the scarlet thread of Christ that is weaving its way through Scripture, starting with “In the beginning, God.” Satan knows full well what this passage means and that is why he hates it and wants the world to hate it.
Unfortunately, you will hear many in the church miss the point of this passage. This story is not about being willing to sacrifice to God what you have so he can give you something better. It’s not about giving to get. If you are in a church where that is coming from the pulpit then you might want to leave. That is taking the beauty and the sheer glory of this passage and making it about temporal needs. The sacrifice of Isaac is not about getting what you want. That is not what this passage is about.
Because this passage is on one hand fearfully hated and on the other watered down or made into a man-centered message we expect to find speculations run rampant. Where God does not speak we are not invited to fill in the blanks. We might wonder about things but we must not place our wonderings into the Bible. We must not place our speculations on the level of “Thus saith the Lord.” And if we are going to teach on this passage we ought not make points of instruction based on guesses. It’s a danger all of us must be careful to avoid.
The story of God’s command to go to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice Isaac can easily be broken into two sections. The first two verses of 22 are the command that God gives. We must spend some time examining that before we press into the rest of the narrative. The rest of the story in verses 3 through 14 tell of Abraham’s response to God’s command. The question is: When God commands what does faith do?
