Genesis 22:1-19
We face all kinds of tests in this life. Toddlers learning to walk face the test of learning by getting up many times after each fall. In watching toddlers fall and the many kinds of expressions that come to their faces tell us a lot about the testing process. Tested by pain, endurance, the shock of being down again, a look that says ‘I am just going to sit here awhile’ and then they make the effort to get up and try again.
When we start school we face the test on the subjects we are studying. At some point most of us during our school years forget to prepare for a test. Do you remember the fear that gripped you when you knew you were not ready for a test?
When I learned to drive we did not have drivers’ education courses in school. I learned to drive a big truck as my dad and brother loaded hay in the back. I drove tractors and cars long before I was sixteen. When I went to get my drivers’ license I had never had a permit so the guy talked dad into getting me a permit. When we left the office I said, “Dad, you know that I know how to drive.” He replied, “I know. We will go to Rutherfordton tomorrow and you can get your license.” Guess what? The same license examiner was in Rutherfordton that had been in Forest City the day before. I told him that I wanted to take the drivers’ test. In those days you had to parallel park. When I finished the road test he looked at my dad and said, “This boy did not learn to drive that good in one day.” He then laughed and said that I had passed the test
Sometimes we face tests that will test what kind of person we are and what kind of faith we have in God. In the tragic moments I have had people ask me where God was when a bad incident happened. One time a seventeen year old young man was riding his motorcycle late one evening and hit an electric guide wire and became a paraplegic. His grandfather asked me where God was when this happened to his grandson. I would tell people that I believe that God never wants bad things to happen to us in life. God was present, but he allows humans to make choices and decisions that produce tragedy in the events and experiences that take place in life.
I believe God will never force us into doing something wrong. Let’s look at the faith test that faced Abraham. God had given him the promise of the land in which he was living. He had given him a son in his old age and God had given him a new name. He was no longer Abram, but Abraham. God had promised him more descendents than the stars he could count in the sky. You can guess that Isaac was a very spoiled son. God wanted to know if he loved him more than anything else in this world. So God set up a test for Abraham. “Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. Go sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you.” A normal reaction to this command would be, “No way, God, will I sacrifice my son.”
Abraham prepared to do what God was asking him. “The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ‘Stay here with the donkey’, Abraham told the servants, “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there and then we will come right back.’”
This was a great statement of faith to the God that Abraham worshipped. He said, “We will worship” meaning Isaac and himself. He also said “We will then come back to you”. In faith Abraham trusted God with his son’s life and trusted that God would not do him or his son harm.
“So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders while he himself carried the fire and knife. As the two of them walked on together Isaac turned to Abraham and said, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes my son?”, Abraham replied, ‘We have the fire and the wood’, the boy said, ‘but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?’”
In another affirmation of his faith Abraham said, “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they both walked on.
Abraham laid Isaac on the altar and prepared to offer him to God as his sacrifice. God spoke to Abraham, “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
God did provide the sacrifice. “Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught buy its horns in a thicket so he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in his place.”
God has provided the eternal gift of life for those of us that believe in him. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world but to save the world through him.”
The scriptures tell us there is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only son.
And the judgment is based on this fact: “God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those that do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Are you preparing to face your testing day on the way you have chosen to live the life that God has given you? Faith in Christ is the only way to pass God’s judgment day test.
