Genesis 22

Going live over on Facebook. Sir. Sometimes the servers I think have to warm up or something. Oh, hello. There we go. Just taking a little bit longer today. We are at Genesis chapter. Let's see Genesis chapter 22. Really, really wonderful, powerful passage in the Scriptures. And this morning I have a guest with me. This is Ed Blackwood by way of Indiana and Australia and Pittsburgh. So, Edie, Welcome to Coffee and devotions. Thank you. So at asked me what are we doing here? So, why don't we have some, Edie forgot his coffee so I'm not going to drink my coffee because that would be inhospitable. But why don't we pray and then we'll get into the Lord's word. Father, thank you so much for waking us up this morning. Thank you for giving us another day. Your mercies are new every morning or compassions Do not fail. And Lord, we pray now as we come to your word that your spirit would help us that we would understand it, that it might be written upon our hearts and that you might teach us to live with hope, because of who you are and what you have done. Please would help us this morning in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so we're at Genesis 22. So I don't know how to split this up. Well, why don't you want to read? Let's see, there's 24 verses. You want to read the first 12 And I'll read the second 12. All right. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham 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 burden offering and one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. 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 the rose and went to the place which God had told him, of which God had told him. Then on third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place of far off. And Abraham said to his young man, stay here with the donkey the lad, and I will go yonder and worship and we'll come back to you. So Abraham took the word of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac Hassan and took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My Father, and he said, Here I am my son. And he said, Look, the lamb looked the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him and Abraham build an altar there and place the wood in order, any bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, so he said, Here I am. Then he said, Do not lay your hand on the land 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. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, and 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 bird offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place The LORD Will Provide, as it is to this day, in the mountain of the Lord, it shall be provided. And then an angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself, I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and not and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessings 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 gates of their enemies. In your seat, all nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to bear Shiva. And Abraham dwelt at Bear Sheba. Now it came to pass after these things that it was taught Abraham saying, Indeed Milka has born children to your brother named whore has the firstborn beause his brother, Kim UL his father, the father of a REM, kiss, Id huzzle killed ash did luff and Blue Hill, and blue all begat Rebecca. These eight Milkha bore to Nahor Abraham's son, brother, his concubine whose name was Ruma also bore teba Gohan to hush hush and my car well those last ones really gotcha gotcha no got not got ya got me. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about be what's the best versus summarize this and see what are we called to do? And in the midst of this, right, so how would you summarize? It's really two sections right? 20 through 24 is its own section. How would you summarize I think the bulk of this is going to be 20 through 19. How would you summarize that section? Well, it's obviously pointing us to a future provision of a sacrifice. We find in other places in the Bible that is referenced. It's a hard text in some ways. why would why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? It makes it clear that that was sort of the pattern of the nations and not to be the pattern of his people. And yet this was a clear command of God. And God knew the what the outcome would be. I'm impressed with the certain the the quickness with which Abraham obeyed. He didn't wait. The New Testament tells us that he believed that God would raise Isaac back from the dead which of course points to another who was raised from the dead. But I think this the name of the place The LORD Will Provide would probably be a summary sentence or summary phrase if you wanted to, that the Lord provides an offering that's necessary and we can't Okay, so in your Bible, you might underline verse 14, as as a summary. I think I think it really fits as a summary of the whole text. Okay. I love this right. Different people find different verses that they think speak to the heart of this. So that's not underlining my Bible at all. But I have verse two and then as well as 1617 and 18, underlined in my bow, but I'm known for underlining a lot. Yeah, so Abraham is commanded to offer up Isaac This is a pattern that I love. So Edie works at the seminary in what he likes to call admissions. And I love how Dr. Williams talks about the story of Genesis. It's fast, fast, fast SS. But then you get to this point. And God says offer up your son, your only son and this is a son that has been dragging out for chapters waiting for the sun to finally appear and now the story slows down. They go up the mountain and they take the wood and he lifts up his entire story slows down to every little detail to emphasize the amount of tension in the story and it uses the term multiple times the Septuagint translates you know, his only son has a 2g and translates that Monica nice. Is same one for Jesus. Yeah. So it's, it's another professor of mine was pointing out it's as if the Lord when he provided that ram in the thicket. If there was a counselor in heaven, the Father would have looked to his son and said not today, but someday we'll be back on a mountain. And we'll provide the sacrifice. At it's a very messianic passage, and it's one that James picks up on. He doesn't have a dead faith. He actually believes in God willing enough to take his own son to be a sacrifice. Kierkegaard talks about this passage and calls it the absurd. But the Lord does these things. Well, and again, I say it's a hard passage because it wasn't the pattern of what God wanted from his people. And yet it was so much pointing to the what Christ would do. In which God would not withhold his hand from taking the life of his son. Obviously, they did it at the hands of wicked men. But he sacrificed his son, he did more than he required of Abraham, though Abraham was willing and ready and and had not had he not been stopped with his downward plunge of his hand would have sacrificed his son but God did sacrifices in a way that's beyond comprehension. Really? Yeah. Yeah, no, I love the idea that you know, as Isaac is going up, yet I see the wood. But where's the sacrifice? There's a sacrifice you and the Lord will provide. But the contrast with what Christ makes clearly known to us, especially in the Gospel of John is, he knows he's a sacrifice. Well, the next part 2324 Why do we need to know about Abraham's brother, having kids? Well, there's a name in there that rang a bell, Rebecca. And Rebecca of course became the the wife of Isaac. And so we're just introduced to that extension of the the extended family that would work out would make another provision. This time, not a sacrifice but a wife. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so this is kind of a preview for as we're going to see the covenant of grace continue to unfold and that promise you continue to carry forward. And so Rebecca's in that story and so it needs to introduce us where she gonna come from how she related and, and so well. Last thing we look at we've talked a lot about Christ. covenantal truths last see we'd need to talk about us calling right so it's great that we can know these things up here and we might even believe them here. But how has it changed our lives? What impact does it have for you? What would you say? Well, I think the, the response I mean, one of the verses verse 18, that you said, you underline this promise of blessing because Abraham obeyed the voice of God. And God wants our obedience. He wants my obedience and when we when our children were young, we tried to stress to them that their obedience was not just to us, their parents, but it was to God. And there may be things that I'm reluctant to do or uncomfortable with doing. And yet if it is the word of God, if it's the direction of the Word of God, I need to say, No, I can trust God. And do that even if it's uncomfortable. Yeah. And to me that quick obedience, in quick obedience, believing God's promises, to me is a real clear application. Okay, so quick obedience, believing God's promises. I like that. I'm gonna press this especially on verse 18. In as you point out in your seed, all nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. One of the things we pray for every single week is for more missionaries. I don't know who might be listening to this, but maybe the Lord has pressed it on your heart. And you've been sensing this desire to go do missions work. The Lord has promised this to Abraham. It is coming to fruition in Christ that the gospel the gospel is going out to the nation's but it's only by people actually obeying that calling, going and forsaking mother and father children and even family and friends and going and taking it to unknown people. And so I don't know maybe one of us watching the day. And you have since that prayerfully go in obedience, believing in His promises. Well, you might pray for us. Our Father in heaven. What a great reminder in this text of the sacrifice of Your Beloved Son our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, He became sin for us and we became in him the righteousness of God. Lord because of that cause us to obey your voice cause us to go willingly and proclaim the gospel. Even today as we go about our daily probably routine for many of us activities. Give us opportunity to speak a word of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you bless particularly the work of this congregation as they seek to speak the gospel to friends and neighbors in this area? For Pastor Brian as he preaches the gospel day by day in this devotions, and week by week in the pulpit? And Lord, would you be pleased to continue the extension of the kingdom of God on earth? Jesus taught us to pray Your kingdom come on Earth, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so might this be a prompt to us to continue the work of extending the kingdom of God through the proclamation of the gospel? And we ask for your help and remind us of your promises that we can trust are there certain ensure in our Lord Jesus name we pray, amen. Well, may you cling to the promises of God, may you rest in His peace, and may the Lord be your joy every day. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai