Thursday, January 9

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014

Genesis 20:1–22:24

Matthew 7:15–29

Psalm 9:1–12

Proverbs 2:16–22

“Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’  And the two of them went on together.” (Genesis 22:8)

 

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced 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 even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Hebrews 11:17–19)

 

“And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.” (James 2:23)

 

 

In today’s passage, we read not only about Isaac, the promised son to Abraham and Sarah and undoubtedly the joy of their hearts.  In light of God’s promises to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as sand on the seashore, this “testing” of Abraham’s faith must have seemed a test indeed.  How would God reconcile His clear promises to bless the world through Abraham’s offspring if that offspring were to become a sacrifice in such testing?

 

James 2:23 indicates that Abraham’s faith had become “credited to him as righteousness,” the same pattern in which we respond and trust in the Good News of Jesus Christ:  not by works, but by faith.  Abraham’s righteousness did not stem from his perfection; instead, the sovereign grace of God counteracted and overcame Abraham’s shortcomings, such as justifying to Abimelek his hiding of his marriage to Sarah as a brother-sister relationship (Genesis 20).  Despite these flaws, some of which he would pass down to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, Abraham became the father of each believer in Jesus Christ:

 

“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.  As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’  He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

 

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’  The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:16–25)

While this passage discusses Isaac’s birth to a barren Sarah – in both Abraham and Sarah’s old age – it also applies to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac to follow God’s plan but His trust in God’s ability to provide an alternative.

 

As you likely noted, the Genesis passage contains heavy type-foreshadowing.  The Lamb that appears, for which Abraham had waited, points toward the Lord Jesus Christ.  Isaac represents every idol that we might raise above our commitment and faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Through this incident, Abraham learns (and teaches us) that God will deliver on His promises and remain faithful to His character.  As the children learn in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Aslan (a Christ figure) is “good,” but not “safe.”  Isaiah 55:8 testifies: “‘… My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.”

 

 

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

 

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

 

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (Romans 6:5–10)

 

Likewise, we must crucify our desires and our very lives that we may become whom God intended us to become:  that we would be made after the likeness of Christ (Romans 8:28,29).  May we embrace the uncertainties of challenging circumstances and, having crucified ourselves, trust in a wholly other but wholly loving, intimate God to thread the needle – by faith.

 

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