God Will Provide the Lamb
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Genesis 22:1-18
(Sermon Transcript - March 9, 2003)

        Can you imagine, as a parent, a more horrific scenario than that which our Old Testament lesson lays out for Abraham? For years and years, indeed for decades upon decades, God had promised that one would be born to him through his body, who would become a great nation. And indeed, one who would redeem the nations.

        And finally, at the ripe old age of 95, Sarah conceives, and the child is born. Isaac by name. And he grows. And as any father would, especially a father who waited so long for the fulfillment of this promise, Abraham dearly loved his son.

        And then, seemingly out of the blue, comes a command from God that should have knocked the wind out of Abraham’s sails. I have no doubt that it did. God said to him, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

        How do you love God when He doesn’t seem to be making any sense whatsoever? We can only imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind. I have absolutely no doubt that I would have had a few questions had I been in his place, and probably I would not have done as well as Abraham did. For I would have been raising a sort of angry fist to God, if you will, and saying, "I don’t get it! This doesn’t make any sense to me!" I probably would have said, "But God, you said that my son would be the one of whom a great nation would be born, and this would make it virtually impossible!" Perhaps I would have said, "God, you abhor child sacrifices! For you have told us never to do this kind of thing! This is against what you have said is right!" And perhaps even, "What kind of cruel God are you?"

        But that is not what we hear. Perhaps it went through his head, but we certainly don’t read about it in the text. We find that the very next morning, seemingly without hesitation, he gets up and prepares to do what God has commanded that he do. And off they go.

        Meanwhile, other people have cast doubt on the validity of this passage. Once a Unitarian minister by the name of Somerfelt said this about this particular passage. He wrote, "I’ll tell you what happened. I can see it and hear it clearly. For the first time, a man stood up to a God demanding child sacrifice and said ‘I will not obey you!’ A different man came down from the hill than the man who went up. He was accompanied by a grateful son who now understood what the scene was all about. The need in America," Rev. Somerfelt writes, "is not to return to the God of the Bible but to outgrow Him. What is needed throughout the world, in all religions, is for men and women to outgrow their gods. We don’t need to go back, we need to grow up. It is our religious responsibility." [1]

        I must tell you that’s the most creative interpretation of this passage I have ever run across! And in fact, Rev. Somerfelt misses the point completely, and entirely. Because it was by means of Abraham’s obedience that we find that he is blessed. And we find that we too are blessed.

        I must tell you, that someone should point it out to each and every one of us, as I will this morning, that there is a Rev. Somerfelt inside each and every one of us. That in fact, when we see the commands of God, for instance, as laid out in the ten commandments, and we choose to disobey them, we are doing precisely what he suggests Abraham should have done on the mountain, or did do (from his perspective). But he’s dead wrong.

        And that is, we tell God, "No!". And we go scurrying about seeking our own individual rights, and our independence from God. And so, we understand that sometimes, in fact every time, we sin, we dismiss God as though He were some wayward schoolchild, and go running about trying to find what we want to do ourselves.

        What if Abraham had acted as Rev. Somerfelt suggests? What would have been the result to such a turn of events? I would suggest that, first of all, there would have been no great nation born of Abraham. I would suggest that somehow, in some other way, God would have had to go around the sin of Abraham to finally provide someone who would save the world, this promised prodigy of Adam and Eve that would crush the head of the evil one.

        Abraham truly had the opinion that, in fact, he had no authority to tell God, "No", even if God did not make any sense.

        But how could he comply? This had to have been the longest donkey trip in the history of the world, between wherever he was and the mountain to which he was directed to go.

        I can’t read Abraham mind, because the text doesn’t unfold it for us, except in one small place. In fact, I would say (and I didn’t notice it until the Old Testament lesson was read again this morning) in perhaps two small places. You will notice that as he brings his servants to the place where he and his son part ways, he says, We will worship and then we will come back to you

        We will return, Isaac and I! Abraham had faith, even though he did not understand what was about to take place, would keep His promise through Isaac.

        In Hebrews 11:17-19 we read these words. By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received 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 raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

        These are the words written under the inspiration of God! Abraham, as he is going up the mountain, thinks that, even if his son dies, God will call him back to life. That God will do whatever it takes to get done the promises that He had made. And so he had no hesitation whatsoever to tell his servants, "Just wait, we will be back!"

        Does that lessen in any way the testing that God gave to Abraham for his faith? And by the way, why does God test faith? Certainly our faith is tested from time to time. There are times of trial and trauma that almost take the pinnings out from underneath us, that make us wonder about the goodness of God. Either about our own families, or perhaps as we look at situation in the world and we ask, "Where is God? And why is this horrific thing going on, either in my life or in the world?"

        And we say, "I don’t trust God to get us out of this. I’m going to take matters into my own hands and I will resolve this situation!" How very unlike Abraham would that be?

        Indeed we find that God always has the purpose of strengthening our faith through the testings and trials and traumas that come our way. It is never to drive us away from Him, but always to draw us closer to Him. Always to enable us to trust Him, more deeply, even when things get tough. Indeed, when things are always fine, what is the need for trust, or faith? But rather it is the times of shadow, it is in the time of trauma, the time and anvil of hardship, that we begin to realize the height and depth and breadth of God’s love for us, and how deeply He may indeed be trusted. For God is faithful, and He will always keep His promises.

        For we read in Romans 8:28 that And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.. All things! Even something like the horrific command given to Abraham, and even those things like those testings that come our way as we engage in life. God did indeed provide a lamb. That’s what Abraham told his son God would do, and He did. He was not referring to his son, but rather he had faith that God would provide.

        And as his hand is raised with the dagger to plunge into his son, which I have no doubt he would have done at the command of God, the angel speaks, and one might almost hear the breath being exhaled by Abraham. "Do not lay a hand on the boy."

        God never intended Isaac harm. He would not have permitted it in any way, and yet this testing of faith comes, and Abraham by God’s grace, and by God’s strength in Abraham, passes the test.

        You see, when we survive the trials and testings of our lives, we do so by the grace of God, and by the power of God, and through the strength of God. Not because we have such a good and strong godly will, for our will generally tends to do other things than please God. It’s not as though that because we are in Christ the new man in us is so "new and improved" that he overrides our sin. We still have within us the old sinful Adam, the old sinful being, that seeks to do things our own way. And should we, by God’s grace, overcome it, it is God, as it was for Abraham, who gets the credit for what was accomplished. For you see, all things that we receive from God are through His grace. Barring none.

        And so, God does indeed provide a lamb for the sacrifice. It must be said that there is a portrait here that is painted for us. Let me help illustrate it for you. This is Abraham’s son. His only son whom He loves. Who travels to the mountains of his execution, carrying the wood, the instrument of his own execution.

        And this son, is prepared to be sacrificed on the altar. And the father is willing to go through with it if that is God’s work. Does this sound vaguely familiar to you?

        For many, many, many years later, we see the only son of God, whose name is Jesus the Christ, whose Father is willing to sacrifice Him for your sin and for mine, carrying the wooden cross-arm of His own execution to a hill outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, where He is nailed to a cross, and where He dies. For no stay of execution is issued this time around. But rather, the dagger is plunged, and by it we receive the payment for our sin. That payment rendered to God for every sin ever committed.

        In this Season of Lent we try to remember them all, even though it is impossible to do so. God provided a lamb. And He did die for the forgiveness of our sins. And by His death, by His stripes, we are healed. In Jesus’ name, Amen.