Genesis Chapter 22
Intro At 11:30 A.M. May 29,1953 Sir Edmund Hillary
achieved fame. He hoisted the British flag atop Mount Everest and became the
first human being ever to climb to the top of the world.
A)It
was the climax to many long months of planning. The right men had to
be chosen to help, the proper equipment
bought.
1)
Long hours bad to be spent in training.
There had to be rehearsals in Nepal and a period of acclimatization to the
height and cold.
B)
Then Came the buildup, the stockpiling of
supplies and the initial climbs.
Not till then were the climbers ready for
the final assault.
C)
Heavily burdened they clawed their way upward
through the cold. Every step was fraught with danger and discouragement '
1)
Disaster and death lurked in every
crevasse, But They kept on,
forcing their way toward the summit
D) in places they hacked their
way up sheer walls of ice defying
fatigue, raging elements, Lack Of
oxygen, and bitter cold ,
1) Time and strength were both
running out when at last, a few more whacks and the summit was gained.
E) Sir Edmund and his partner
stood where no man before had ever stood 29,002 feet above the level of the
sea.
1) No man on earth will ever
Climb higher than that.
But In Genesis
22 another mountain rears its head‑not Everest, but Moriah. Two men can
be seen forcing their way to the top.
A) The way was far steeper than
Everest and the road tougher, costlier, harder.
B) When at last
Abraham and Isaac stood together on its brow they stood
upon a spiritual plateau, higher than ever reached
by man before.
C) Mount Moriah
represented the highest possible pinnacle of surrender for one and the highest possible Pinnacle of
sacrifice for the other.
1) Few men have ever climbed so
high.
D) Indeed, there is only one. peak higher than Mount
Moriah in all of Scripture, and that is Mount
Calvary !
The Passage
before us tonight is one of the most powerful - most important -most
significant in all of N.T. possibly scripture
A) Along w/ Psalm 22 & Sa.
53 it stands as a picture of the death of our Lord
B) The Message of Mt. Moriah is
really the Message of the Messiah - it is a picture of Jesus at Calvary
C) Moriah means foreseen of God
or a foreshadow of things to come/ foreshadow of our Lords death .
V.1,2A 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that
God tested Abe and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I
am." Then He said, "Take now
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and
offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall
tell you."
Now notice
what God says here - Take your only son - Wait what about Ishmael ?
A) Ishmael was the work of the
flesh God doesn’t recognize our efforts in the flesh ! ( review story - )
B) God doesn’t recognize the
efforts our flesh / told in 1 Cor. 3:12 that our works are going to be tried by
fire & whatever is done in the flesh
1) Wood Hay & straw is
going to be burned
C) So God didn’t recognize
Ishmael as Abe’s son & so He told Abe to take his only son Isaac up to Mt.
Moriah to sacrifice him to the Lord
It is helpful
to realize that about twenty years have elapsed between chapters 21 and 22.
A) We last saw Abraham in a
tent by the well of Beersheba in the wilderness with his son Isaac.
B) There he built an altar and worshipped and called
on the name of the
everlasting, unchangeable God.
1) 20
yrs have elapsed & Isaac is now close to 30 yrs of age
C) For twenty years Isaac has
been the delight of his parents' hearts. Filled their lives w/ blessing and happiness,
1) True to his name, he has
brought laughter into their tent;
D) the whole family life centers around this dear
boy as he grows up to
young manhood.
1) Suddenly like a thunderbolt
from the sky comes this word from God.
I’m sure
that Abraham could hardly believe his
ears:
E) As God says, "Now take your son Isaac, your
only son whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah and offer him up on that
mountain."
Now You can
imagine what a blow this was in Abraham's life.
A) It is specifically called a test.
B) That means it was meant by
God to determine if Abraham's confidence
was in his son Isaac, or in God who gave him his son.
1) This was a test of Abraham's real heart love. In
other words, will Abraham obey the first commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind"?
C) But This is also a test of
how far this man has advanced in the life of faith
and in
the strength of the Spirit.
But The test
did not come out of the blue.
A) Note v. 1 "it came to pass after these
things." What things?
B) all the things that had gone
before, climaxing in the casting out of
Hagar and Ishmael.
1) Again and again Abraham had
been challenged to surrender.
C) First it was his father, now
it was his son, In between, it had been the well‑watered plains of
Jordan,
1) then the gifts of Sodom's
king, then Ishmael.
D) And with each surrender he
was learning how to scale the heights, gaining experience on the foothills,
tackling the lower glaciers, preparing for the ultimate challenge.
E) " then, God said
“Abraham,, "now tackle Moriah."
Note that is
how God works in our lives as well - each Victory brings on a new Challenge
because God desires to grow us up
A) Committed to doing that work
of conforming us into the image of his own dear son.
Now Genesis 22
is a great picture for us of what Calvary meant to God the Father
A) We turn to Psalm 69, Isaiah
53, and Psalm 22 to see what Calvary meant to the Son.
B) But it is Genesis 22 that
shows us what Calvary meant to the Father.
C) And All that Moriah meant to
Abraham in terms of agony & heartache & pain; multiply that 10,000 fold
to understand, what Calvary meant to God.
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and
saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son;
and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place
of which God had told him.
Now notice
that when morning comes, Abraham's obedience is prompt and complete.
A) Though his heart is torn,
yet he obeys God. He has passed the test. I am tremendously impressed at the
obedience of this man Abraham.
B) We are so inclined to excuse
ourselves from hard things and to rationalize our way out of difficult
situations,
1) relieving the pressure
and avoiding certain unpleasant situations.
C) We always want the easy way out of things - but
if we are going to truly grow in the Lord we need to obey - challenge
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his
eyes and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said to his young men,
"Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and
we will come back to you."
How did Abe Do
this ? Where did this stricken father find the strength to carry through this
fearsome task?
How did he
nerve himself to do it? The answer is found there in one brief phrase in verse
5, And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay
here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will
come back to you."
Heb. 11: 17-19 sheds some light on this subject - 17 By faith Abraham, when he
was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up
his only begotten son, of whom it was said, "In Isaac your
seed shall be called,"
19 concluding that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead,
A) See Abe had come to that point of believing in
the promise of God so much so that he believed if God indeed had him go through
w/ this that God would somehow raise Isaac from the dead .
B) Interesting that Abraham
believed in resurrection.
1) Abraham had never had, as we
have today, the experience or the record of anyone having risen from the dead.
C) He knew nothing of Easter,
nor of Lazarus, nor the miracles in the Gospel accounts.
1) Yet so firm is his faith in
the character of God that he comes to a
realization of the resurrection.
D) That is where he found the peace to follow God's
command.
C) In the struggles of that night, he began to
reason and to reckon on God.
D) He must have thought something like this: " Now God has given me promises and I have lived with God long enough to
know that when God gives a promise, he carries it through.
God has said
that in my son, Isaac, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Isaac is
necessary to the fulfillment of the promise. It can't be any other; he has said
this boy is the one who is going to be the fulfillment of the promise.
Well, then, if God has asked me now to offer
him up as a sacrifice, there is only one explanation. God intends to raise him
from the dead."
Stedman
“Abraham
risked everything he owned and loved upon the character of God and found him to
be a God of resurrection.”
V.6-12
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a
knife, and the two of them went together. 7
But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!"
And he said, "Here I am, my son." Then he said, "Look, the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will
provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them
went together.
9 Then they came to the place of which God had
told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he
bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took
the knife to slay his son.
11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from
heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" So he said, "Here I
am."
12 And He said, "Do not lay your hand on
the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you
have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."
NOW IN THIS STORY WE SEE MANY PARRELLS TO CHRIST
1) V.2 Only Son whom you Love !
A) Jesus is the only son - My Beloved son …. Well pleased
2) Abe Set Isaac apart for
sacrifice V. 3 So Abraham rose early in
the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and
Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering,
A) 1 Pet. 1:19,20 the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot. 20 was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
3) There two men who
accompanied the Father & Son to the MT.
A) Speaks to us of the 2
thieves who were crucified along side of Jesus
4) Isaac carried the wood -
that he would be laid upon
A) Jesus carried the cross that
He would be laid upon
5) Isaac was a willing
sacrifice ! Consider he was around 30 & Abe was over 100 he could have put
Abe on the Altar - but he didn’t
A) Jesus was a willing
sacrifice !
John 10 : 15 I lay down My life for
the sheep.
17 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because
I lay down My life that I may take it again.
18 "No one takes it from
Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
6) Abe carried the fire - fire
= judgment
A) Here, as everywhere in
Scripture, "fire" symbolized
Divine judgment. It expresses the energy of Divine Holiness which ever
burns against sin.
B) It is the perfection of the
Divine nature which cannot tolerate that which is, evil.
1) This was first manifested by
the flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life
(Gen. 3: 24).
C) And it will be finally
seen in the Lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
1) But here it pointed forward
to that awful storm of Divine judgment which burst upon the head of the Sin‑Bearer as He hung
upon the Cross,
D) for there it was that sin,
our sin, that , was being dealt with.
1) Just as Isaac's father took
in his hand the fire and the knife, (Is.
53:4).so
the beloved Son was "smitten of God,
and afflicted"
Now as they ventured up that hill - Isaac spoke to
his father saying "Look, the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
What must that
agonizing question from the lips of Isaac w done to Abe’s Heart ?
A) Can we not feel what Abraham felt? Can we not enter into the anguish
that rent his soul?
B) Can we not understand how
much be shrank from the deed ahead?
1) Can we not see how heavy his
feet were as be dragged them toward the brow of the hill?
C) Can we not bear the inward groan as he sobbed in
his soul‑
Consider also
God’s heart
A) What did the bloodlike sweat , the anguished tears in Gethsemane mean
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
B) Can we not feel what God the Father felt in dark
Gethsemane? "My
father
"Here am I My Son." "Behold, the cup.
C) If it be possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my
will but thine be done."
1) The only answer the Father could give was to
point on to the cross.
No
lamb could be found for His Son.
D) So "They went
together Out from the stillness of the
garden They went into the arms of the mob
on to the mock trials before the priests, Herod & Pilate
E) on to the spitting, the
scourging, the scorn; on out into the morning sun, the Lord Jesus staggering
beneath the weight of the wood
1) and the even greater weight
of this world's sin as His Father watched;
then on up
the hill, - Both of Them together.
God saw His Son led like a lamb to the slaughter,
laid out upon the wood, and the spikes driven borne.
A) God watched the whole dark,
dreadful business on Golgotha's hill.
B) There God Himself had taken the great knife of His
own fierce wrath against sin, wrath we deserved
C) That was the work of the
cross, the work enacted in type by Abraham on that lonely mountain in the land
of Moriah
1) and enacted in fact at the
place called Calvary.
D) So Isaac asked where is the
Lamb & Abe was ready w/ an answer God
will provide Himself a lamb
It was a word
of Prophecy for 2000 yrs later on that same Mt. God would provide Himself a
Lamb - THE LAMB
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and
there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went
and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of the place,
The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The
LORD it shall be provided."
15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham
a second time out of heaven,
16 and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says
the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son,
your only son;
17 "blessing I will bless you, and
multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as
the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate
of their enemies.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."
19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and
they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Notice that Here Abe gets another new revelation of
God . When? At the time of the greatest trial in His life
A) Guys when do we grow the most w/ the Lord ?
B) In the times of trial times
of severe testing - it is there that we
get new revelation
1) It is there that we learn
that His grace really is sufficient that His power is made perfect inn our
times of weakness
C) Abraham could depend on the
promise and provision of the Lord. He had already experienced the resurrection
power of God in his own body
1) so he knew that God could
raise Isaac from the dead if that was His
plan.
Note a few
things here
A) Where does the Lord provide our needs? In the place of His assignment.
B) Abraham was at the right
place, so God could meet his needs.
1) We have no right to expect
the provision of God if we are not in the will of God.
When does God meet our needs?
A) Just when we have the need
and not a minute before.
B) When you bring your requests
to the throne of grace, God answers with mercy and grace “in time of need”
(Heb. 4:16).
1) Sometimes it looks like God
waits until the last minute to send help,
but that is only from our human point of
view. God is never late.
To whom does God give His provision?
A) To those who trust Him and obey His instructions.
20 Now it came to pass after these things that
it was told Abraham, saying, "Indeed Milcah also has borne children to
your brother Nahor:
A) Now the Chapter ends - w/ a
list of names of 8 kids who were born to Abe’s brother Nahor
B) It would seem like sort of a
anticlimactic end to such a radical chapter - in which The death of our Lord is
foreshadowed
C) But notice the first part of
v.23 And Bethuel
begot Rebekah.
D) here we see the significance
of this section it is put here to introduce Rebekah who would become Issac’s
bride
E) Significant - that the
Church was born after - Calvary - it is the first fruit of Calvary & here
we have record of the Birth of Issac’s bride Rebekah
F) God is so cool in how He sets things up